Sesame Street Live!! {review}

SO excited to have one of my favorite real life friends visiting us on the blog today to talk about her Sesame Street Live experience! Welcome Christine from grateful for a coffee break.

Many thanks to Samantha who passed on the opportunity to review Sesame Street live to my family and I. We received four complimentary tickets to view the show in exchange for a written review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Call me crazy, but I’m a sucker for Sesame Street. There is just something profound to be said about a show that is in it’s 43^rd season that still features original cast members and who’s characters are still warming the hearts of children around the world. I loved Sesame Street growing up, and one of the perks of mothering for me, is two little boys who love watching it almost as much as I do.

When Samantha told me about the opportunity to view Elmo Makes Music with Sesame Street Live, my husband Mike and I were ecstatic. The boys had been watching commercials for the event since the beginning of the year, and we knew they would be absolutely over the moon to go. Elmo Makes Music made our May family adventure day incredible.

In Elmo Makes Music, a new music teacher named Jenny moves onto Sesame Street. When she discovers that the truck carrying all of her precious instruments is missing, the Sesame Street friends purpose to cheer her up and learn they can make music with a whole host of everyday objects like Cookie’s cookie jar, Oscar’s trash can lid, or Ernie’s rubber ducky. The show is high energy and exciting and our entire family enjoyed it.

What I loved about the show . . .

Those Sesame Street people are just so incredibly creative!

So many of the musical numbers had incredibly creative twists. A few of my personal favorites included a black light routine highlighting dancer’s feet (because you can make music with your feet), Bert singing and dancing dressed as John Travolta, and The Count and Jenny’s trio with the number 8 to a Josh Groban song (come on, who wouldn’t love a Sesame Street shout out to Josh Groban?!).

There was a good balance between classic Sesame songs and new music.

My boys (and I) were three of many singing loudly along with all the Sesame songs we recognized from the television show, but there was also a nice mix of new music thrown in like parodies to “Rockin Robin”, “Dance to the Music”, and “You Should be Dancing” (hence Bert rocking out John Travolta style).

The show was interactive and the characters were accessible.

Throughout the show Jenny and the Sesame Street friends called for audience participation, which is always a fan favorite with the five and under crowd. In a few numbers, characters walked into the audience and made their way all the way to the back to mingle with the kids. Telly came and hugged Elijah and Noah. We may or may not have freaked out like we were meeting a real celebrity.

It wasn’t all just fun and games.

Jenny actually taught the audience about the 8 notes that make up a scale and I believe the emphasis the show placed on music being everywhere encouraged kids to explore the potential music-makers they have around them in their own environment.

What I loved less . . .

• Due to some scene and costume changes, Jenny had a few solo numbers. She of course was f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s, and as a mom I understood why she was center stage with no characters and sets and props, but because she isn’t a regular on TV, my boys had a tendency to lose interest in those moments.
• I’m sure this is more a reflection on the venue rather than Sesame Street Live, but during intermission vendors walked the aisles with ginormous over-priced Elmo balloons. Of course because there were ginormous balloons speckled across the auditorium for the entirety of intermission, that’s all my children wanted to talk about. Thankfully the ushers made sure they were all put under seats for Act 2, and by the time the first number started, Elijah and Noah had forgotten all about them :).

If you’re planning a visit to Sesame Street with your family, make sure to check out Elmo Makes Music!

Sesame Street Live is hosting shows all over the country through November 2013. Click here to purchase tickets and see which shows are being performed in your area.

Special thanks to Samantha and Sesame Street Live for giving us the opportunity to make music with Elmo!