The Guardian reviews Dog Man: The Musical, a new stage adaptation of Dav Pilkey's hugely popular children's graphic novel series, now showing at London's Southbank Centre after an off-Broadway run. Based on the tale of a part-dog, part-human police officer, the show extends a franchise that has already spawned a film, video game and board game, and highlights how far Pilkey's crime-fighting canine has moved beyond the page into a full multimedia phenomenon aimed largely at primary-school-age fans.

The books have sold more than 70m copies in the decade since the first was published, and the musical—written and composed by Kevin Del Aguila and Brad Alexander—leans heavily into slapstick humour rather than the source material's emotional depth. Structured as a show-within-a-show performed by the comics' fictional creators George and Harold, it features a scrappy, DIY set and a cast of human actors playing Dog Man, the villainous cat Petey, his accidentally created "mini-me" Li'l Petey, and a psychokinetic butterflyfish named Flippy. The review, directed and choreographed by Jen Wineman, praises its energy and inventiveness but notes that translating the comic's visual gags and quieter, more poignant moments to the stage proves a tricky, only partially successful task.