A MUSICAL version of Roald Dahl’s modern day fairy tale, James and the Giant Peach, presented for Watershed Productions by the Polka Theatre Company, has much in common with Cinderella.

James is orphaned when a rampaging rhinoceros kills his parents and he has to live with his aunts, Spiker and Sponge.

The evil pair have much in common with the Ugly Sisters. Like Cinders, James (Michael Lapham) is forced to do household chores and Ebony Feare and Clive Duncan deserve the boos they get for James’ ill treatment.

Glowing crocodile tongues cause an ordinary peach to grow into a giant one before our eyes.

James climbs into it and meets some life-size creepy crawlies who live there.

They include a jaunty centipede (Clive Duncan again), a spinster spider (Ebony Feare again), a spotted ladybird (Louise McNulty), a valiant earthworm who saves their lives (Lane Paul Stewart) and a posh grasshopper, Nicholas Courtu-Langmead. a whizz kid on the violin.

This motley crew struggle with sharks as they cross the Atlantic to reach New York’s Central Park.

I take Harry (9) and Max (6). I thought Harry might have outgrown such nonsense but he loves it.

Max’s eyes widen with wonder. Sitting near the front the brothers wear shark hats to terrify the people in the peach.

Max’s favourite scene is when the peach is tossed through the audience

Harry likes the fish projected on to the curtain and the way the audience are involved.

The inflatable peach and the insects’ costumes are designed with ingenuity by Keith Baker.

* At the Waterside Arts Centre until January 3. For tickets, call 0161 912 5616.

Star rating: * * *