Room on the Broom, Nuffield Southampton Theatres

IT takes a special show to keep a ton of tinies captivated.

But, other than a few fidgets part way through, the sold out theatre of mainly toddlers and their grown ups were completely wrapped up in the story of a very hospitable witch, her fare more sensible cat and a particularly overcrowded broom.

They certainly hadn't tired of these lovable characters once the hour was up. In fact, the energetic two finale songs had the whole audience clapping along and shouting iggety, ziggety, zaggety, ZOOM at the top of their voices.

Adapting a popular picture book into a stage show is a tough task. It's especially tricky when it's such a well-loved favourite as Room on the Broom from the celebrated bookshelf of the young of pre-school literature Julia Donaldson.

Her rhyme time prose is a bedtime story fixture in our house as well as millions of others across the country and further afield and my little one is able to recite the entire book, long before she has learned to read.

But the stage version of this lovely tale impressed as it extended a five minute book to 55 minutes with all the lines used and a host of colourful asides keeping the pace sharp.

The action gets under way with a group of campers bedding down for the night in a forest. The children loved the snoring from one of the campers and laughed out loud at the other campers endeavours to put a stop to it.

The foursome spot something flying in the distance. A witch's broomstick tumbles to the ground and the foursome cleverly transform into the characters from the book.

Clever puppetry was very well used and my nearly three-year-old daughter and I particularly enjoyed the energetic frog leaping around the stage.

Catchy songs were also used to help move the action along as the watch and her cat drop to the ground to retrieve a hat, a bow and a wand. Along the way, they meet a dog, a bird and a frog, which causes the overloaded broom to snap.

The friends help save the witch from the jaws of a rather cuddly Welsh dragon and all live happily ever after aboard their fancy new broom.

LORELEI REDDIN

Room on the Broom runs until Saturday.

Ticket availability is very limited.

Box office: 023 8067 1771 or visit nstheatres.co.uk