Which West End musical for theatre-loving 12 year old?

[leccybill]

Thinking of doing a day trip to London to see a show with my theatre-mad 12 year old daughter.
We have seen Matilda (touring), Blood Brothers, Hairspray, Les Miserables, and Six. We're seeing the Lion King in December.

What would you recommend?
I think I'm between:
Frozen
Matilda again
Wicked
I'd like to see Dear Evan Hansen but I wonder if it's just a touch grown-up for her and I think it might go on tour when it finishes it's run in October?

I have also just booked Come From Away for August for 85 for 4 tickets so happy with that! That seems to be ending in January (via Kids week)

Dear Evan Hansen is October as well so those two may well be a priority. That has some good August seats as well pricewise!

Saw Hamilton last night with the new cast and they were amazing - got the bench slip seats for £20 each

My 12 year old liked Wicked. We are going to &Juliet later in the summer which sounds right up a 12-year oldest street too.

Thanks to all. I've booked Wicked, at Kids Week prices (thank you!). We were limited to matinees and dates so it fitted. DD is very excited and I'm sure I'll enjoy it too. If it's been in London for so long, I'm sure the set, costumes, staging etc will be top-notch.
Now to make a plan of what to do for three hours that she'll enjoy!

Wicked. It’s amazing (me and DH love the theatre)

How about going to Theatre Cafe for lunch before the show?

www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk

I’ve seen you have just booked wicked, but please take her to see SIX if you get chance another time. It’s a proper girl power musical and my teens loved it!

It's finished, sadly!

We are seeing it for the second time on Tuesday!

It says in the OP that they’ve seen SIX 👍🏻

Have the days of long running shows ended, or have some of these been killed
off by movie versions? Will any of them come back? Just seems such a shame that some of these great shows are leaving the west end so soon.

It does seem much more of a turnover. Wicked, The Lion King and Hamilton are longstanding as is Mousetrap

But yes an awful lot is ending, Dear Evan Hansen, Come from Away and the Christie Play Witness for the Prosecution all are. Others have limited runs (Grease, Lion Witch and the Wardrobe).

Cinderella was a very short run!

I hope Dear Evan Hansen goes on tour.
I agree, they do seem to have shorter runs these days.

Frozen is the best musical I have ever seen.

Wicked and Matilda are brilliant. But Frozen knocks it out of the park. Its absolutely outstanding. They do things on that stage that made me gasp, cry, laugh. Can't recommend it highly enough.

See you’ve booked Wicked so no point in me telling you we enjoyed it so much we’ve seen it three times.

Rewatch the Wizard of Oz if you can before you go.

That’s our Sunday afternoon film for next weekend in anticipation of going to the show the following week - kids have never seen it.

This has been an interesting read.

DD 14 is also musical theatre mad. Our big hits have been Be More Chill, Hamilton, Come From Away and Amelie. DD saw Hamilton when she was still 11 although knew every single word by that point and made me listen on repeat so I'd be able to follow it 😁

My recent favourite was Bonnie and Clyde though that was a SUPER short run.

I hated Wicked (though DD has seen it twice and loves it) . And we walked out of Back to the Future! It was awful. And the place was full of middle aged men hooting at non jokes 🙄

We have Dear Evan Hansen lined up for the very last show in October and I'm looking forward to that one.

I hope you enjoy Wicked op and your DD does too. 😀

@leccybill wicked! Definitely x

Watched Wicked ages ago for the first time and wasnt really aware and it didnt make sense and wasnt keen. Read the book and watched it and it was much better. We are going on THursday and the kids have recently done it at Stagecoach so will be fine.

That is where Frozen I think has a huge advantage because you know the storyline - watched Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and because I have read the book it made sense - if you havent it wouldnt at all. The Lion King and Matilda I reckon get good reviews because of that.

I remember watching Hamilton for the first time and again not liking it as much - DS getting into US history was a gamechanger.

CInderella suffered from the reverse

My 12 year old loved DEH. They also adore Hamilton. My 14 year old dancer is very excited to see Newsies in December. Lion King is amazing for all ages.

We preferred In The Heights to Hamilton but it never came over here, did it. Loved the Latino vibes. Film was nowhere near as good.
We loved Matilda - I cried at the end!
DD was completely captivated by Les Mis, all 3 hours of it!

I went to see Dear Evan Hansen at the weekend. I purposely didn’t take my 14 year old as I thought it would be too ‘heavy’ . Actually it wasn’t and I think it would be suitable for a 12 year old. It is no where near as dark as I thought. I highly recommend. Frozen is as you would expect, Wicked is good and more of a musical with a full cast. Dear Evan Hansen had a cast of only eight, the music is wonderful. Better than Wicked IMO but Wicked is more of a spectacle. I’ve seen many shows and am rarely disappointed. Whatever you choose have a wonderful time.

Definitely Wicked

I'm sure I read somewhere Dear Evan Hansen is finishing sometime soon (in theatre terms).

Glad the new Hamilton cast are fab though cos I've just re-booked to go see it again in October.

Lots of my theatre loving friends raving about Frozen... I'm in team Hamilton though - I just bloody love it. Or Six? (I think it's overrated and a bit screechy but other people seem to love it)

Hamilton is amazing and my teen DD loved it and is obsessed with the soundtrack. She also enjoyed Six and Wicked. She liked Dear Evan Hanson, but she is older than your DD.