A Day In The Life - Cabaret Review

What: A Day In The Life
When: 27 - 29 September 2019
Where: Wonderland Spiegeltent, The Paddock - Federation Square
Written by: Bridget a’Beckett and Julia Davis
Performed by: Bridget a’Beckett , Julia Davis, and Sharni Page
Choreography by: Jessica Enes
Costumes by: Kim Simon

Sharni Page, Bridget A'Beckett, and Julia Davis

Melbourne Fringe Festival is not just about grown ups. There is a lot of stuff out there for the little ones and Wonderland Speigeltent (behind ArtPlay at Federation Square) is bringing a whole program of fun including the Musical Sprouts show A Day In The Life.

Yella (A'Beckett), Blueno (Davis), and Reddy (Page) sing their way through some of life's greatest challenges such as brushing your teeth, cleaning your bedroom, and going to the toilet. With the help of the other kids in the audience, Yella learns these life skills and along they way they teach the children some basic music knowledge.

Musical Sprouts are committed to creating theatre for children with really high music performance values. They are amazing singers and musicians with classical training and throughout their songs they create glorious harmonies which literally brought beatific smiles to the faces of the very young ones in the audience at the preview. Not just visiting the world of canto bello, the trio take the audience through a brief tour of jazz, rock and pop and a little bit of looping for some percussive fun.

Some parts of the show are more successful than others. The toilet training sequence doesn't really work because Yella leaves the stage to do it. Having said that the 'Toothbrush Tappy' song really does get the feet tapping and the kids can get up on stage to help Yella learn how to brush her teeth and the feminist anthem 'I Can Do That' is rousing.

The costumes are colourful and I loved the flower set piece at the back. A'Beckett is cute and energetic as Yella and Davis is suitably mature and a bit grumpy as Blueno. My one suggestion would be that Page needs to find a bit more character definition within this trio.

A Day In The Life is fun and beautiful and has that rare quality of being for the really, really little kids - the toddlers rather than the preschoolers. They really do appreciate the music and the performers are gentle and caring with their rambunctious audience. Because it is behind Art Play, the kids can go and play after (or before) the show too!

3 Stars