THERE ain’t no party like a CBeebies party where everyone is welcome, and your little ones are all excited when they see their favourite television characters come to life on stage.
The award-winning BBC educational children’s channel has brought together characters from four of its popular shows – Teletubbies, Hey Duggee, Go Jetters, and Sarah & Duck – for the CBeebies & Friends – It’s Party Time! show.
The show made its world premiere at the Genting International Showroom, Resorts World Genting, on March 16, and it will run till March 31.
Children and families are invited to participate in the musical show, as the bubbly host and cast from Australia and Singapore introduce the CBeebies stars through a variety of interactive moves and sing-alongs in each of the show’s party piece segment.
The whole show is aimed to appeal to a wide age group, including as young as one.
Ragdoll Productions, the brand owner of Teletubbies, calls this early age range as “first-steppers”.
Live show producer and BBC licensee Nick Larkin explains: “It’s the little ones who are just taking their first step, so we get them at the show as young as 12 months.”
To parents who might have some concern their toddlers won’t sit still for the whole show, Larkin has this story to tell about a family who came for another live show under the same brand.
“The parents said to me: ‘Oh my goodness ... this is their first show and we were worried they wouldn’t sit still for 55 minutes, and they did.
“Can we have [the show] at our house every day to keep them quiet’?” he recounts with a laugh.
While the CBeebies musical might seem like just one big party, there are educational elements within.
Larkin explains: “There’s a subliminal educational message in all the shows but it also has to be entertaining, and so we break that fourth wall by going out into the audience.
“The show has a lot of video elements in it because ... if you watch children’s TV, it changes things all the time, so that’s what we try to so with this show.
“Rather than have big hard set pieces ... we thought we’d ... try and merge the live [show] and video together for the tablet generation.”
Larkin also spoke about what people can expect from the brands involved in the shows.
“In Go Jetters, they’re these space guys that travel around the world, and in the TV series, they go visit a different location, so we thought we’d choose for this show Paris, [specifically] the Eiffel Tower.
“In each episode, there’s a fun fact, what’s called a Funky Fact, and they go somewhere in every episode and then they’ll learn things about that location, like [for Paris], we learn about the Eiffel Tower.”
Sarah & Duck is another gem of a show that is highlighted in this CBeebies & Friends party through the magic of puppetry.
The Bafta award-winning TV show follows seven-year-old Sarah and her mallard best friend Duck, who interacts with the narrator, and other characters like Scarf Lady, the Shallots, the Ribbon Sisters, and Flamingo and John, whose voice actors also lent their talents for the live show.
On the appeal of Sarah’s polite character, Larkin says: “She’s inquisitive and she wants to learn different things all the time, you know, she uses her imagination.
“It’s the one section where we choose to do with puppetry because it gave a real sense of scale.
“She’s meant to only be seven, so she’s going to be this high [gestures height].
“I’ve been quite amazed with the reaction from the audience. When she first comes out, you hear them all go ‘ouuhhh’, and they’re all on the edge of their seats, so I think this kind of puppetry hasn’t really been done on this scale before.”
Larkin adds that for him, besides counting happy families walking out with big smiles a job well done, what’s more important is the positive impact a live show has on young children.
“If just one child wants to come back ... as an adult to a musical or a play or something, or perhaps wants to become an actor or performer, then I think we’ve done our job.”
For more, visit the Resorts World Genting website or call 02-2718 1118.
