As I said earlier this week on Twitter – you know Christmas is well and truly on its way when The MAC kick off their family winter show and this years Hansel and Gretel really does kick off with a bang!
The story is a re-imagining of Hansel and Gretel, transposing the action to a shopping mall, where a family struggling with the cost of Christmas have come for some last minute shopping. A freak storm hits the mall and suddenly some of the toys from the store have come to life, as well as a big bad wolf, 3 little piggies and the nefarious Sugar Witch. The Sugar Witch needs children as the not-so-secret ingredient for her amazing liquorice.
Hansel and Gretel are desperate to get back to their parents who rushed outside during the evacuation the storm caused, so they enlist Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Amazing Man and Fantastic Girl to help. Follow all that? I took my 5 year old nephew Jack , who assures me he is nearly 6, to see it with me to see what he thought. I asked him a variety of probing question after the show including – What did you think of the show? What did you think of the songs? What did you think of the special effects? And what did you think of the costumes? The answers came back thusly Good, Good, Good and Good. I did get a bit more out of him when I asked who his favourite was:
That Mario T-shirt eh? But I digress. The show was fantastic from start to finish, the Sugar Witch belted out numbers that nestled somewhere neatly between Jimmy Somerville and Lady Gaga and she really nailed those high notes! The set and costumes were amazing with my favourite being the big bad wolf with his glowing green eyes. The inventive use of set combined with lights and sound design didn’t go unnoticed either especially during the scene where the ‘wage slaves’ went through the liquorice machine.
Needless to say Jack laughed like a drain, bopped around like a Duracell bunny and clapped like a mad man once it was all said and done. The whole cast and crew, with their endless costume changes, really pulled off a magical show and keeping the attention of 100+ kids who are hyped up on the free sweets (yes there is a free sweetie shop before you go in for the whole run) is no mean feat! This show is bright, fun, musical and is recommended by kids (and adults) of all ages! I thoroughly enjoyed the show and as I know it was aimed a bit more for his age group I’ll let jack have the final word – “GOOD”
Hansel & Gretel is on at The MAC until 7th Jan 2018. More info and tix here.
