Today we went with friends, Jo and Miss E, to see the Tweenies Live! show at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall. IJ had been looking forward to it for weeks and we had high expectations as we went into the show.
The fact that the auditorium was barely half full should have warned us of what to come. The show was, quite frankly, awful. The worst 'professional' production I have ever seen, in fact.
The set was very basic; clearly the credit crunch has badly affected the BBC who produced the show. According to the BBC Press Office: "... Milo, Jake, Bella and Fizz aren't the only stars of the show; they ant you to get involved in the fun by singing, dancing and joining in with all the actions." Well there was no audience participation whatsoever, and Doodles wasn't even there, much to IJ's disappointment.
There were just four people dressed in Tweenies costumes dancing around a small stage to a pre-recorded track who were possibly as bored to be there as we were. They weren't wearing microphones so there is no evidence to suggest they were live at all. There was no atmosphere and the children did not seem engaged at all; they were restless and fidgety for most of the performance. The Tweenies branded toy we bought at the theatre broke on the way home.
It was a cheap but not cheerful low-budget performance, a waste of money and a huge disappointment. The only good thing was that they were only on for an hour in total! We expected better, much better.