Milkshake! Party Party Live

Last week was a first for my children, as it was their very first trip to the theatre. We had tickets to go and see Milkshake! Party Party Live in nearby Bedworth (it’s a national tour, running through to May next year), and they were both very excited! Nanny was coming with us, too, which always adds to their excitement, and my poor mum arrived here to two kids in a state of near-frenzy, eager to go!

At breakfast time, the children watch Milkshake!, pretty much every day. As such, they know the characters well and were looking forward to seeing them for real. In the run up to the trip, I cannot tell you how many times I’d had the two of them piled on my lap, looking at the PC and details of the show!

Included in the line up, which Boo could of course recite by heart before we arrived, are Pip from Pip Ahoy, Chloe’s Closet, Little Princess, Bananas in Pyjamas, Bello from Jelly Jam, Noddy and Tessie Bear, Toby’s Travelling Circus, Tickety Toc, and Milkshake Monkey. The premise of the show is that it is Milkshake! Monkey’s birthday (gasps of excitement from children all around the room!) and the presenters, Amy and Derek in our case, are organising a surprise party for him, with the help of all of the characters. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t want to offer up any spoilers!

We arrived just 10 minutes before it began, so the theatre enthralled them while they waited, and Little Man was making friends with the children behind us!

It was too dark in there to properly capture their little faces, and my shots are grainy so I apologise, but oh my, it was so lovely to see them totally captivated. In that bottom shot there, the characters are on stage, and you can see both children are riveted!

The best way that I can convey to you how much they enjoyed it, from one parent to another, is to say that they saw me buy sweets as we were going in, and yet they didn’t think to ask for them until the interval – a phenomenon!

Personally, I felt that the interval, after around half an hour, was unnecessary and lengthy, as it did then make Little Man more fidgety for the second half, whereas he’d been sitting transfixed throughout the first half.

The verdict? Well, my children are very lively, and yet this had them. Boo will sit still in a cinema, and at just turned 5, this absolutely held her attention and she repeatedly told me how much she loved it after the show (she also wanted to go again the next day…and the next day… you get the picture!). Little Man rarely sits still for anything, yet he did for this until the interval, and actually was just moving about a bit for the second half, though still watching the show. I was impressed, as I wasn’t certain he’d watch it all. There’s song after song, with the presenters getting the children to stand up and join in with the dancing, which Boo did with absolute gusto.

It was the whole experience that made the afternoon. The happy children all around us, the belief that the kids had ‘met’ Bananas in Pyjamas et al and the fun of dancing and cheering along with the show. An afternoon to remember.

Have you taken your little ones to the theatre?

Disclosure: We received tickets FOC for the purposes of this post, but all words and opinions remain my own 

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