Shaun's Big Show

We were given four tickets to see this show by Milton Keynes Theatre to and see Shaun The Sheep's Big Show.

Shaun and Timmy are firm favourites in our house, so we were pleased to be invited to Milton Keynes Theatre to go and see Shaun's Big Show. It is being billed as "A Music & Dance Extravaganza" and that it is! 

The show started and Daddy and I had one of those weird moments as we looked across to each other just to check that we weren't dreaming and this was actually happening as we watched a group of sheep and a dog dance on stage. Top Ender and Big Boy sat beside us were enthralled and didn't noticed as we joked about how they came up with the idea for this show but from the looks on the other parents faces as we glanced around we weren't the only grown ups with the same idea.

Then something happened, I realised that I was enjoying the show as much as the children were, I was clapping along, tapping my foot and humming to the tunes that I recognised. Suddenly the whole audience was laughing and  the clapping along gained momentum and the cast knew that they had us, you could see them relax and become more at ease (well as much as you can whilst dressed as a plasticine creation!) and the dancing became more fluid. There are a couple of moments in the first act that seemed a little slow, but this is made up for with some great disco dancing from the pigs and sheep which had our audience in stitches. 

You don't need to have seen any Shaun The Sheep or Timmy Time to understand what is going on, you don't even really need to have any knowledge of dance or dance sequences from popular films of the last 60 years but you do need to be willing to let yourself go with the flow and just enjoy watching a very hard working ensemble (all of whom I think did the splits at one point in the evening) bring to life characters normally only a few inches high. The costumes were fantastic (please, please, please, can I have a sheep suit?), the set design and lighting was pretty, the music was catchy and the choreography was everything it needed to be for sheep and pigs dancing ballet, traditional Irish dancing (yes River Dance stylee), highland dancing, ice dancing (a tribute to Torvill and Dean), a scene from Singing in the Rain, a scene from Saturday Night Fever and a scene from Dirty Dancing not to mention the can caning sheep!

If you enjoy dance or Shaun the sheep or if you have children who enjoy either of these then make sure you go to see this show when it comes near you.

The show runs for an hour and forty minutes including a twenty minute interval and is at Milton Keynes Theatre until the 10th July.