CHILDREN’S MUSIC / THEATRE
By Sam Moran, Roola Boola Children’s Arts Festival
At Chapel
off Chapel
Roola Boola Festival runs until July 14
Roola Boola Festival runs until July 14
Performance program runs until July 7,
2017
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: ***1/2
Review also published in Herald Sun Arts online on Wed July 5, 2017& late in print (Fri 7 July). KH
You may recognise Sam Moran as a former Wiggle but also, more recently,
from his children’s
music show, Play Along With Sam, that runs on Nickelodeon’s sister channel,
Nick Jr.
As part of
the Roola Boola Children’s Arts Festival, Moran performs his 50-minute stage version
of Play Along With Sam in which he sings his peppy, singable signature tunes for
an enthusiastic audience of under-sixes.
Two youthful dancers (Jayme-Jo
Massoud and Miah Rose Lake) support Moran with perky choreography that is
simple enough for the children to imitate, and they do – they all excitedly dance,
skip, jump and wave their arms around in their seats.
Sporting a white safari
jacket and a pith helmet, Moran performs in front of a huge, colourful banner
that proclaims ‘Play Along With Sam’ and, accompanied by a recorded backing
track, sings his songs that include bouncy tunes, cheerful singalongs, a Caribbean
rhythm and even a rock number.
He starts the
show with one of his most popular tunes called Best. Day. Ever! and, after some
warm-ups of finger-wagging and toe-wiggling, the kids eagerly join Moran in
playing mime instruments to create a band in his song, San Sereni.
They gleefully jump,
march and skip to Dance to the Beat, then practice their counting in Count With
Me (1, 2, 3) and also in Cuckoo when they count to twelve as the cuckoo clock
counts through the hours.
Play Along with Sam -L-R Miah Rose Lake, Sam Moran, Jayme-Jo Massoud
The Sam
Moran hits keep coming, including Building It Up, the beachside playtime about
building sand castles, the multi-lingual All Around The World, and Taalee, a
title that means ‘clap’ in Hindi.
Moran
delivers a couple of songs about food, the first being I’m So Hungry and, after
the kids declare their favourite foods, he sings and dances a song called Spaghetti,
during which the children wiggle and squirm like spaghetti noodles.
The show finishes with a
finale of Up Down Turn Around that has the pint-sized audience – and some
parents – merrily reaching up, dropping down and spinning around.
Play Along With Sam has
only two performances but, if you are keen to get to a show or a workshop,
visit the Roola Boola Programme here:
By
Kate Herbert
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