An interactive miscellany aimed at the millions of tots who watch Five’s Milkshake on TV each morning, this tie-in show is vibrantly, but gently, presented by two members of a rotating team, supported by a cast of six. It was Jen Pringle and Derek Moran to the fore in the first of three performances at Tunbridge Wells.
A bit of narrative cohesion comes from spending the first half - working with Noddy, Mr Bump, the Little Princess and other familiar characters - getting everything ready for a concert and the second half performing it. The emphasis is on fun rather than achievement. The audience, for example, has to help the nervous Peppa Pig to sing. When Bumble is scared to dance he is told that it doesn’t matter how you do it, it’s enjoying yourself which matters.
Pringle is a lively performer with masses of energetic stage presence. Moran is a softer foil. Together they make an effective team, especially during a reworking of the ghost scene borrowed from pantomime.
At the heart of all this is a lot of traditional material, such as Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and I Am the Music Man, Doh Re Me and Any Dream Will Do. Many children were, literally, dancing in the aisles by the end. Why, however, does everything have to be so loud that it actually makes your bones vibrate to the point of hurting and must surely be damaging to infant ears? And I’d have liked to see and hear more live work and less voice-over.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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