We've been to see The Sooty Show

I still vividly remember watching The Sooty Show as a child and have seen all five of my children enjoy the mischief, magic and mayhem of the little bear and his friends over the years.

This weekend, we were lucky enough to review The Sooty Show live tour, straight from CITV, at the Shrewsbury Severn Theatre.  Starring Richard Cadell, Sooty, Sweep and Soo along with appearances from Ramsbottom the snake and Butch the bulldog, the show invites the audience to join in with Sooty's birthday party celebrations.  From baking the cake, picking the music, decorating the house and finding the perfect dress for Soo, there is so much to do, and things are getting messy!

The format of the show is very true to the original style I remember from my childhood.  There is a lot of  mischief, lots of visual comedy, some magic and plenty of times when Sweep got bonked on the head for being a 'sausage brain'.  I liked the fact that they hadn't pandered to political correctness or tried to make it more modern, by giving Sooty and Sweep voices or articulating them beyond hand puppetry.  It was exactly as I remembered it.  The old fashioned simplicity, carried by madcap comedy and a plethora of mishaps for Richard to deal with worked really well. 

The show included some audience participation including an audience rendition of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' every time the doorbell rang.  It was a very interactive show and if you went along with it, it was very entertaining and a lot of fun.  Freddy loved jumping out of his seat to dance, and was shouting at the characters on stage at every opportunity!  I loved seeing him so happy and engaged with what was happening on stage.

Richard's delivery of the show was frantic, manic and fast paced.  His engagement with the kids in the audience was very good and the whole crowd was cheering, clapping, dancing and laughing throughout.  

Highlights for me were Sweep doing Gangnam Style, which was a stroke of comedy genius and Sooty's big magic trick finale, which left me amazed!  I am still not a fan of Soo (she is just so self-important and bossy) but she did look spectacular in her final party frock! 

The show is definitely a fun filled treat for little ones and a nostalgic pleasure for parents who still remember the magic spell "Izzy Wizzy let's get busy!"

After the show, you can meet Richard and Sooty.  This was well managed and the children were efficiently processed as they were quickly filtered through to the front of the queue, posed ready to be photographed and then moved on ready for the next family.  No time for a chat or a cuddle, but a very streamlined process to get everyone the chance for a snap with Sooty in the quickest time possible without too much waiting around.  My children were happy to get their picture taken, although Freddy cottoned on to the fact that Richard's hand was inside the box and therefore inside Sooty.  The magic and wonder of childhood may have diminished slightly right there!!

The Sooty Show is great theatre for little ones (and Sooty fans of all ages).  It's noisy, fun, in your face and chaotic, bringing the mischief and mayhem of Sooty to life in an entertaining and laugh-out-loud format for all the family to enjoy.

The tour is continuing across the country at these venues:

Sat 18 Oct            Chesterfield Winding Wheel                      

Sun 19 Oct           Lichfield Garrick                               

Sat 25 Oct            Camberley Theatre                        

Sun 26 Oct           Swindon Wyvern                            

Mon 27 Oct         Peterborough Key Theatre                         

Tue 28 Oct           Cromer Pier                       

Wed 29 Oct         Southport Theatre                         

Thu 30 Oct           Redditch Palace                               

Fri 31 Oct             Newtown Hafren                            

Sat 1 Nov             Boston Arts       

Sun 21 Nov         Stevenage Gordon Craig                              

Sat 8 Nov             Wimborne Tivoli                              

Sat 15 Nov           Llanelli, the Lyric Theatre                             

Sun 16 Nov         Chesham Elgiva                 

Find out more at www.thesootyshow.com.

Shake It Up with Magic Moves

Young children love playing pretend games and I'll often find Freddy pretending he is a dinosaur, a lion or a dog in the throes of some imaginary game he is playing!  They also love to move about: dancing, crawling, wriggling and jumping.  Magic Moves is an electronic light-up wand that combines these two activities to provide a toy that encourages exercise, creativity and listening skills.

With 90 fun creative movements and 26 musical tunes, the Magic Moves wand gets little ones up and moving as they follow the spoken commands and pretend to be an assortment of animals and objects and move around and interact  in special ways.  Being a wand, children can imagine themselves being magically transformed into a hopping frog or a stomping dinosaur as they enjoy this high energy, creatively expressive game.  To add to the magic, the wand has a light up bulb on both ends which play twenty-six different colourful, twinkling light shows.

I have been sent a Magic Moves wand for Freddy to try out.  The wand is easy for a little one to operate with a play button and a repeat button as controls.  Pressing play gives the child one of 90 different commands along with its music and light show.  Pressing repeat allows the child to hear the last command again.  Surprise commands enliven the game as children are told to Freeze, March or Dance along to one of three different style tunes (in Techno, Afro-Pop and Latin Salsa styles).  When the command is heard, children can imagine that they are a bouncing kangaroo or a spinning top and move around the room whilst the music plays.  It is a great way for them to get up and get active, whilst having some fun structure to their play.

Freddy, assisted by 10 year old big sister Kizzy really enjoyed playing with the Magic Moves wand and embarked on a session which entertained them (and me!)  The wand engages them in a play session that uses their imagination, exercises their bodies and encourages creative performance.  The lights, sounds and special commands add a real element of fun to playtime. It enhances listening skills, direction following, develops gross motor skills and also teaches some great vocabulary with verbs such as swooping, stomping and soaring allowing children to explore language and come up with their own ideas for movements. Freddy absolutely loves it.

The Magic Moves is an excellent educational resource for home or at school or nursery for children aged 3-7.  I think it is excellent and am really impressed with how engaged Freddy is when he plays with it.  It is also nice to have older kids and parents joining in, which is something little ones really enjoy.

The Magic Moves electronic wand can be bought from Learning Resources for £17.94 (VAT incl.)