7YO to an evening theatre performance?

[MayorMumbum]

7YO DS is completely obsessed with Contortion and has always wanted to go and see Cirque Du Soleil.

They're doing a show in our city next month and as he's had a bit of a rough month I thought I might surprise him with taking him to see it/hotel stay.

The only issue is for a few reasons I don't think it's possible to go and see a matinee showing so would need to be the Friday evening with the show not starting until 8. Would that be too late for a 7YO do you think? (he's very well behaved- most of the time!) It would mean it probably wouldn't end until after 10.

Just after some opinions really, never taken him to see something like this before.

Thanks!

Only you can really answer that. Our two have been regular theater goers (to age appropriate stuff) for the last 5 years. They're 11 and 10 years old.

Depends on the child, and on the show.

We only regret the things we DON'T do...... everything else we can learn from.

Depends what he's like really - some 7 yos can stay awake till 11 (realistic by the time you get back to a hotel) and enjoy themselves, some will be a whinging mess by 9

None of mine would have had a problem with that.
In fact they all performed in panto with late night performances on consecutive nights-and went to school between them.

I think it depends on the 7 year old. I took my 7 year old to see the evening performance of Matilda musical in the summer which didn't finish until 10.30pm. I did wonder if that was too late, but, to be honest, she is often still awake reading when I get home from work after 9.30pm despite me trying to enforce sensible bed times. She cried because I hadn't bought her any ridiculously expensive merchandise that I just couldn't afford on top of the ticket price, which might have been because she was overtired (or she might just be a brat!), but she didn't have to get up for anything the next day because it was the school holidays and she recovered from her late night, so it was worth it because she loved it (and so did I). Unless your DS really struggles with late nights, you should go for it as it isn't a school night and presumably he can have a lie-in the next day.

Thanks everyone . I think I'll book a hotel super close to the arena and get him some of those ear defender things just to be on the safe side.

I'll bite the bullet and book the tickets then, he's going to be thrilled!

I took my 7 year old to see Wicked and she loved it and lateness wasn’t a problem at all.

My DD went to see Les Miserables for her 7th birthday and it's one of her fondest memories. Do it!