Taking toddler DS to the theatre?

[AKMD]

DS loves The Gruffalo and the West End version is touring locally so I've booked tickets for us to see it. I am wondering though whether it's a good idea because he will be only just 2 years old and it's 55 minutes long.

My parents took my brother and I to our local theatre a lot when we were young children but how young is too young?

Mum mum took my dd1 2.5 to our local theatre and she stayed pretty still for about 40 mins. Try it and see how you go. You can always go to the back for a wander if they get restless

Take a favourite small toy, plenty of snacks and drinks and he should be fine.

My 2.7 year old just sat through all of Bob The Builder, which is nearly 2 hours including the interval. He was mesmerized.

I'm sure The Gruffalo will be just as mesmerizing!

I'm sure he'll be fine, just sit on the end so that you can take him out if need be.

Thankfully there were 2 end seats left near the back so I can take him out if needed. This will be a bit of an experiment!

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

We took our 2 yr old to see The Tiger Who Came to Tea, which was about 50mins long but very interactive - which is the key! She joined in with everything and almost forgot we were there! :)

My 2 yr old DS loves the Gruffalo book, but when I showed him the dvd one day at about 2.4m, he screamed and screamed; real tears, and he kept shouting 'don't like it, don't like it!' in a real panic. I tried to calm him then realised he was beyond saving...
It was the first bit where the mouse encounters the fox. I realised that he was seeing for the first time that the fox is scary; it wants to catch the mouse. He quite clearly had not grasped what the book is actually about - to him it's a nice rhyming story with interesting pictures. He has no concept of hunting and eating yet!
Just relating this in case your young DS reacts similarly when seeing an extended version. But I hope he enjoys it!

When I say 'beyond saving', I meant that I turned it off, rather than getting him to watch any more!

I took my ds to see the Gruffalo when he was just under 2yo. He was a little scared when the lights went off at first but then sat through the whole thing. He got through a packet of animal biscuits or something. We were with 2 friends with similar age ds and dd and they were all great. I think at the time ds had never sat still for so long! We've since been to see quite a few other things and at 3.5 he is quite a theatre lover already! We're going to see Going on a Bear Hunt and Tiger Came to Tea next month.

Go for it - some children were scared but I suppose that depends on the child - they were much older than ds.

Having endured a pantomime this Christmas sat next to a 3 year-old that couldn't sit still for ten minutes at a stretch I'd urge caution. If it's going to be a matinee audience of mostly tinies where no-one's going to mind if they yell or want to run about it may be OK.

I can't imagine grown-ups without a tiny queuing to see it so hopefully we should be in sympathetic company if he plays up. I'm looking forward to it a bit more now though so I'll use this as a tester and, if all goes well, look at some of the others later in the year :)