The Hairy Maclary and Friends Show, Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton - review
We've read the books dozens of times together so to see Hairy Maclary and friends brought to life on stage was magical for the children.
Rather than following any one particular story from the books by Lynley Dodd this fun interactive show is a stroll through all of the favourite characters: Schnitzel von Krumm, with the very low tum, Bottomley Potts, all covered in spots and Bitzer Maloney all skinny and bony to Hercules Morse big as a horse, Muffin McClay, like a bundle of hay and Scarface Claw.
Played by an agile cast wearing doggy costumes (think Cats on a budget) the young audience were enchanted from the outset and encouraged to join in with the countless songs along the way led by the main narrator Miss Plum.
Credit it to Nonsense Room Productions - who first performed Hairy Maclary at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010 - they know how to keep the children engaged using many panto style..he's behind you..tricks.
I didn't notice any of the very young audience resorting to throwing jelly babies or legging it toward the fire exits mothers in pursuit - as can sometimes be the case with toddlers required to sit for more than two minutes.
Quite the opposite they were transfixed and the show - at just one hour long - was the perfect length for the attention span of our three year old daughter.
The friendly Miss Plum carries most of the production helping teach the wide-eyed youngsters the actions such as 'keeping your paws up' and 'scratching your ear' and had the hundreds of youngsters at The Grand obeying on command.
The highlights were the arrival of Scarface Claw the terrifying cat, the sing-a-along with the three bees and the 'who stole the soap?…It was the robber duck joke' - what a quacker!
It is a lovely show, thoroughly enjoyed and we were all humming the Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy song all the way home.
