David Walliams’ The First Hippo on the Moon Review

Edinbugh Fringe Festival

Pleasance Beyond – until 28 August.  Reviewed by Jess Brady

4****

Sheila is an ambitious hippo, she has big dreams and an ever bigger bum!  The First Hippo on the Moon is a hilarious and extraordinary space adventure which sees the enormously rich Hercules Waldorf-Franklin III and ingenious Shelia compete to be the first hippo to make it to the moon. The First Hippo on the Moon tells the tale of the importance of team work and dreaming big.    

After being called a piggy by Hercules, Sheila enlists the help of her jungle friends;  Derek the scientifically clever ostrich, the hard working porcupines Scratch and Sniff, Keith the friendly and kind giraffe and we mustn’t forget the king of the jungle Silver Bob the gorilla who is the fountain of all knowledge, to help her in beating him to the moon! 

Silver Bob tells Sheila in order to fuel her rocket to the moon, the only fuel available in the jungle is POO! All the jungle friends donate their poo but it’s still not enough so  they enlist the help from the audience ! 

The team of five actors from Theatre company Les Petits do a brilliant job at engaging the young audience with their bundles of energy and impressive puppetry skills that will leave you feeling exhausted just watching them !

This show is perfect for your little ones as it has lovely story that is easy for them to follow as well as some more adult jokes that will keep the mums and dads entertained too.  There are some great songs that you can boogie too as well as an amazing set and dazzling costumes that look like they have been taken straight out of the book!