I went to see the new musical 101 Dalmatians at Regents Park Open Air Theatre on the afternoon of Thursday 28th July.
To start I want to say what a cute family show this is. It is based on the classic story but turned into a musical with some beautiful songs. Going into it I wasn’t sure what to expect, I had seen mixed reviews and other than that not heard much about the show. But I absolutely loved it from start to finish.
For me the stand out performers were the children. They were adorable and so talented. I think it worked so well having some of the puppies as children and how they did the puppetry of them was fabulous, they added a new dimension to the show.
Overall all the puppetry was so well thought out and performed exceptionally. The movements of Perdi and Pedro were so lifelike I sometimes forgot they weren’t real dogs. And the heads and tails of the puppies was so effective, it was like an optical illusion that you could see the body despite it not being there.
The costumes also worked so well, all very simple but having everything black and white was clever and made them pop on the blue background. I loved when all the different dogs came out in their costumes, it was so fun working out what breed they all were, you could hear the audience whispering to one another as they spotted them appearing around the stage.
I don’t think there were any stand out songs for me however I really loved WWDD and ‘All of Our Kisses’.I was almost in tears for ‘All of our Kisses’, it was so cute and I would love for them to release a recording of that so I can listen to it again! I also think 101 was such a joyous ending, made me smile and want to get up and dance. There’s also a super cute four legged surprise at the end of the show too, I’ll leave it up to you to figure that one out.
Overall I loved the show and think it’s the perfect summer show for families, with its short run it’s unlikely I will watch it again however if it were to return I would be keen to watch it again.
As mentioned I think this show and Regents Park makes for the perfect family day out. You could arrive in the morning and go for a walk around the park maybe even a ride out onto the lake on the pedalos. Then sit down for a picnic to refuel, after that head to the Zoo for a fun filled afternoon. Then head to the open air theatre and grab some pizza and a drink before watching the show! A great family day out planned all in one place.