Ever wonder what happened to Incy Wincy Spider or the Muffin Man? Well now you can find out, as they take to the stage in a brand new adventure with Little Baby Bum Live!
Based on the smash hit world’s largest educational YouTube channel, the recently opened Troubadour White City Theatre are inviting families across London as part of their inaugural summer season ‘Troubakids Festival’ to step into the magical and colourful world of Little Baby Bum.
Hosting four family productions throughout the summer season, Troubakids Festival has been created to delight and inspire the next generation of young theatregoers in their inviting, spacious and modern new space. It must be noted at this point that Alistair Shaw, Managing Director of White City Projects, along with Troubadour Theatres and Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan and AIMCo have clearly invested immense amounts of careful planning and budget into this new theatre, having created two truly state of the art, versatile theatres under one roof to satisfy and entertain an extensive and diverse demographic. Their vision to transform the local area and create a new and accessible cultural experience is clearly paying off.
The story follows Mia, Jacus, Twinkle and their Nursery Rhyme friends as they all prepare for the upcoming big Little Baby Bum World Parade. Crammed full of family favourite nursery rhymes, the show combines puppetry with live action song and dance, along with digital animation to create a truly magical escape into a world adored by its young audiences.
Presented by a cast of five, each actor played multiple roles within the production, allowing them to show an impressive range of versatility within their acting. With energy beyond belief, all five actors exuberated a truly vibrant and enthusiastic performance allowing each animated character to really come to life. It was clear from the wondrous reaction of each infant that they truly bought into the world being created for them. Credit in particular must be given to Harrison Spiers whom displayed an extra zest and impressive level of puppetry and comedy within his performance.
While the set was simplistic, it created the perfect layout for each section of the
plot, and provided clear and bright, colourful visual stimulus for the children. This combined with the opportunity to join in easily recognisable nursery rhymes through song, copying actions and dance moves, and the impressive level of energy and performance given by each actor, allowed for an all-round effective and pleasant performance.
Having attended a lot of children’s theatre in the past, I believe the only effective way to review its success is by observing the young theatregoers themselves. Purely from their reactions you can see how engaged and delighted they are by a performance, and this production certainly didn’t disappoint. For a truly memorable introduction to theatre for youngsters, Little Baby Bum Live ticks all the boxes. It’s inclusive, amusing, and physically, visually, mentally and educationally stimulating. It successfully creates a vivid and lively world that fascinates children through its clever combination of puppetry, and live and digital animation. If you know a child who is familiar with Little Baby Bum online, I would have no hesitations in taking them along to this production.
Review by Adam Tipping
Rating: ★★★★
Seat: D13 Stalls | Price of Ticket: Tickets starting from £16.50
