Mister Maker & The Shapes Live at St George’s Hall Bradford Review
Mister Maker & The Shapes Live
St George’s Hall, Bradford
26-27 October 2015
Reviewed by Claire Giles
My twin girls age 4 are huge fans of Mister Maker and watch him regularly on Cbeebies. As this is Mister Maker’s first Tour I wasn’t sure what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was.
We went to see Mister Maker at St George’s Hall in Bradford which is in the City Centre and therefore easy to get to by car or public transport. It is literally two minutes walk from Bradford Interchange and there is a large payable NCP car park over the road. Discount tickets for the car park are available from the box office on request. The staff at St George’s Hall were friendly and helpful. We quickly and easily collected our tickets from the Box Office and went into the bar as we were slightly early. As this was a kids show staff had put colouring pencils and Mister Maker colouring sheets out on the tables to keep the kids entertained whilst waiting for the show to start which was a nice touch.
The show started by introducing Mister Maker’s singing and dancing friends who helped him throughout the show. When Mister Maker arrived the kids in the theatre were so excited. My two were bouncing in their seats! Mister Maker promised arty adventures for all the mini makers and that’s what he provided. Mister Maker with help from his friends and members of the audience produced some clever art pieces alongside singing and dancing. There was lots of audience participation which kept the kids and adult’s attention (which can be hard with young children). This included clapping, song actions, waving paper in the air, singing along and getting the kids to create using their imagination. The whole show was high energy from start to finish, the songs were catchy and it had you laughing along in parts (especially when Mister Maker got adult members of the audience up to wear his animal creations and then made them participate in a ‘Mister Maker had a farm’ song rendition with animal noises).
My girls were eagerly awaiting the appearance of The Shapes (circle, square, triangle and rectangle) throughout the show. They were asleep in the first half as shown on the big screen at the back of the stage. Mister Maker got all the kids to wake them up after the interval. The Shapes then came on to sing and dance. They had all the kids up in the aisles dancing and singing along to their song I am a shape.
The show was great entertainment for younger children whether they are Mister Maker fans or not. It even had the adults joining in alongside the kids making it great family entertainment.
Rating: 5/5 
Mister Maker & The Shapes Live is currently on tour, for more information and tour dates visit www.mistermakerlive.co.uk.
For other shows at St George’s Hall in Bradford visit www.bradford-theatres.co.uk.
St George’s Hall. Bridge St, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1 1JT | 01274 432000
