5 STARS. AnimAlphabet is slick, professional and full of colour. "By far one of the best children’s performances I’ve seen," says Sharon Wallace
It’s a tall ask to entertain and grab the attention of little ones for a full 60 minutes – I know that for sure, but the impressive performance of AnimAlphabet The Musical at The Rose Theatre on Monday had my two pre-schoolers fixated throughout. And myself for that matter.
This cleverly thought out tale takes you to Treble Clef Island, a musical land of song and dance, where the dramatic and funny animal characters take on the dastardly duck, Calando and battle to stop him from stealing sound. The unlikely hero of the show, Colin the Country Cockatoo rallies his friends to collect musical notes to rebuild the scale and defeat the feathered fiend.
Woven into the storyline is tutelage for children in musical notes and theory and a moral splash of friendship and being able to say sorry, thrown in for good measure. With a Hip-Hop Donkey, a Swing Alligator, a Reggae Frog, and my daughter’s favourite - Geoff the Geordie Jazz Giraffe, what better way to introduce children to different genres of music.
“What do you call a donkey with one leg, one eye, breaking wind, wearing blue suede shoes and playing the piano?
A plinky-plonky-honkey-tonkey-stinky-winkie-wonkey-donkey”.
With plenty of silly laugh-out-loud moments, amazing puppetry and the catchiest of songs by multi-platinum, chart toppers, The Hoosiers (I’m still humming them now), this energetic and enthralling caper had us tapping, clapping and singing along from beginning to end. Try and catch this show as it tours.
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