Monday, January 30, 2023

Hey Duggee Live Tour

LC and I took the children to see "Hey Duggee" at the Festival Theatre on Saturday. As I've said before, I consider Duggee to be one of the genuine greats of CBeebies, but with these adaptations there is always the risk of having the life sucked out of them, so how does Duggee fit on the scale of painful experiences?

Well, the children thoroughly enjoyed it. As the lights went down, Surprise! had a little cry. However as soon as the narrator came on stage he was immediately transfixed. And from there he was bouncing around, dancing along, clapping and laughing throughout. Funsize also enjoyed it in much the same way.

The show itself was essentially a compilation of "best bits" from the show - throughout you could basically see where this bit, and that bit, came from. But that's fine. They clearly knew their audience and gave them what they wanted. One thing that was very clever was that when we entered the children were each given a sheet of stickers, and at various parts Duggie gave the Squirrels a badge - and the audience were encouraged to find and wear their matching sticker.

The show was about an hour of fun and puppetry. We had the Acapella Badge, the Choregraphy Badge, the Costume Badge, the Egg Badge, the Singing Badge, the Space Badge, all building up to the Theatre Badge. There were numerous songs, lots of audience participation, and all sorts of fun.

And it was great fun. I actually very much enjoyed it, partly because the kids were having such a good time, and partly in its own right.

Well done to those involved - you've earned your Live Tour Badge!

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