Shaun's Big Show Malvern Theatres (From Hereford Times)

Shaun's Big Show Malvern Theatres

10:21pm Monday 1st August 2011 in Reviews By Andrew Doyle

GOOD as the costumes, scenery, music and choreography are, it feels like there is something fundamental missing from Shaun the Sheep's Big Show.

For though this adaptation by Choreographer Bill Dreamer and director David Wood is non-stop action from beginning to end, with an incessant succession of dance numbers and slap-stick routines, it felt as though its creators have merely taken the essence of what is a five minute animation on CBBC - another brilliant Aardman vehicle, granted - and elongated it for the stage until the simplicity and allure gets lost. For mime to be effective for children, simplicity and repetition is essential.

This show is sadly, if you’ll pardon the pun, shorn of much attempt to draw the audience in - that all important missing element.

We watch, we clap along to reworked versions of Dirty Dancing, Saturday Night Fever, and Riverdance to name just a few of the amusingly executed routines, clearly references inserted to keep the adults happy, but references which are a little lost on a three-year-old.

The cast are excellent in what they do, and the set is a very good representation of the farm Shaun lives on. But I was left with the very distinct feeling that this is no more than a marketing vehicle for a very successful brand.