We sent the lovely blogger Karly from Karly Says to review the Melbourne Christmas show Santa’s Break-Down Under for us. Have a read of her experience and thoughts, and that of her two daughters, aged 6 and 8 years old.
Santa’s Break-Down Under is a fun and quirky combination of old school circus acts, physical humour and a fresh take on a familiar old character. Adding a stage and sound desk to temporarily convert Coburg Velodrome into a unique open air theatre is the kind of outside the box thinking I love.
The atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly, allowing children the opportunity to run around freely and although climbing the velodrome slope was discouraged, kids were still able to check it out up close. This helped to keep them entertained whilst we waited for the show to start, since it was running 40 minutes late, and then during half time break which occurred only 20 minutes later.
The website promoted that there would be a bunch of activities and stalls on hand of which there were very few. There was a bubble machine blowing bubbles and a snake handler walking through the crowd. Although they did promise and deliver an alcohol stall, the prices of the drinks were so exorbitant that after paying $5 for a 600ml bottle of coke I drew the line at any of the other choices.
A nice touch, however, was the cast coming straight out after the show and mingling with the crowd. Being excited country kids, my girls were keen to get a picture and we got the opportunity to have a chat with Hayley Hoopla – one of the elves and hoola hoopla extraordinaire. Hayley explained that the idea for the show came from the Producer having a dream about creating a show with Santa in it.
This tiny piece of information gave me a new perspective on the whole event because although I found the show a little underwhelming and the story line hard to follow mainly because there was only one speaking character. It was obvious that this was a group of very talented, very fit, very well trained people who weren’t doing this to be the next big thing, but because they loved it, wanted to share it and were following their dreams by doing so.
That gets a big tick in my book.
However, you can’t do a review on a kids show without consulting an expert on being a kid, so I debriefed with my colleagues aged 6 and 8. They provided a long list of things they liked about it. The girl in the wheel, the dance off, when the elf got the present, the fact there was an ice-cream truck and a big mention of the pie in the face for Santa. It was obvious from watching them during the show they were engaged and enjoying it.
Strangely, no mention from either of them about the cost of drinks being too high or the delayed start.
Overall, I would recommend Santa’s Break-Down Under as a laid back family outing paying tribute to circus acts, some cool dancing and a spin on the usual stories around Santa.
For more information about Santa’s Break-Down Under click here.
A huge thank you to Karly for her honest and engaging review.
Please go and check out her blog at www.karlysays.com.