The Gruffalo

Tall Stories Theatre Company brings The Gruffalo to the Zellerbach Theatre on Saturday, February 13, 2027, at 2 PM. It's a musical adaptation of the award-winning picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, brought to the stage by the London-based company. This particular production is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and it's full of songs, laughs and scary fun for children.

If you know the book, you know the story: a clever little mouse outwits a hungry fox, an owl, and a snake by inventing a monster—the Gruffalo—only to find out that the Gruffalo is actually real. Tall Stories has spent two and a half decades turning that into a stage show, and it's a production that's traveled quite a bit before landing here. It's played to sold-out houses on Broadway and in the West End, so it's a well-traveled version of the story. The Times called it "an irresistibly charming tale told with refreshing simplicity," which pretty much sums up what it is: a straightforward, musical retelling of a book that most kids already love.

The venue is the Zellerbach Theatre, a 250-seat performance space inside the Annenberg Center on the University of Pennsylvania campus. It's an intimate room designed for theatre, dance and experimental work, and its small size keeps the audience close to the stage—which is a nice thing for a children's show, as the kids can actually see what's happening without having to squint from the back. It's a matinee, too, so it's a Saturday afternoon outing rather than a late night.

Tickets run from $87 to $132, and the show starts at 2 PM on Saturday, February 13, at the Zellerbach Theatre in the Annenberg Center on Penn's campus.