With any adult theatre show, the producers have a certain amount of time at the very beginning in which the audience must suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves into the performance in order for them to really enjoy what they are seeing.
When the performance is for children, that time slot is very much shorter and, unless the first few seconds of a show really grab the audience, it never will – and Tree Fu Tom Live! sadly misses that time slot by some considerable distance.
As the curtain rises Tom is standing centre stage and, as there is a slight delay before the music starts, I am able to hear a small boy behind me say, quite loudly, “That’s not Tom”.
You see, the live show is based on CBeebies smash hit cartoon series and, although an incredible amount of time and effort has gone into recreating every detail of Tom’s costume, everything is ruined by the addition of a ridiculous wig (much worse than the one pictured above) that wouldn’t be out of place in a show entitled, “Bad Haircuts of the 1970’s”.
With only Byron Witchell, who plays Tom, on the stage, an audience of mainly three to eight year olds who are not remotely convinced about the character and some rather cheap scenery, the show falls at the first hurdle and, despite sterling efforts from other members of the cast, it never really recovers.
At the arrival of Kyle Taylor as Twigs, the acorn sprite, and Naomi Slater as Ariela, the butterfly, the audience do quieten down a little and try to get into the storyline, but the story is so thin that they are pretty soon getting restless again.
The main problem with the show seems to be that the producers have taken a storyline that would fit, very nicely, into one of the 20 minute cartoons, and stretched it to breaking point while still hoping that it will create an entertaining and captivating 90 minute show – and it doesn’t.
Natalie Piper and Laurie Elcoate May play the Mushas, a brother and sister pair of mischievous mushrooms called Stink and Puffy and they, together with Danny Rogers as Squirmtum the woodlouse, steal what is left of the show. Their interaction with the audience helps to draw most of the children in, but the material that they have to use is quite poor, so even that is a bit of a struggle.
This is the first time that Tree Fu Tom has moved from the screen to the stage and, if he is to make a return visit, he, and his below average show, needs a serious makeover first.
Two Stars **
