Let’s Go Mum reviews… Dora’s Pirate Adventure!

What a fantastic time we had today at Dora’s Pirate Adventure Live Show!

The Canberra Theatre was packed with an excited sea of children, ranging in age from babies and toddlers right up to pre-schoolers and school-aged kids, along with their accompanying mums, dads, grandmas, grandpas…it was a truly a family affair!

We had seen a Dora Live show previously, so we knew we were in for a great show! LifeLike Touring had very kindly provided us with Gold-Class tickets, so we were close to the stage where we could see all the Dora-fun unfold!

The kids found cardboard flags waiting for them on their seats and immediately set to waving them in excited anticipation. The lights dipped and the larger-than-life super-star Dora, Boots and the rest of the vibrant cast danced out, greeted with an appreciative little-kid-roar – the Dora’s Pirate Adventure show had begun!

The show followed the ever-popular Dora recipe of Map emerging from Backpack and showing the way to the objective of the adventure – this step-by-step approach is great for little kids to follow and remember along the way. The adventure route was clear – navigate over Dancing Mountain, go through Silly Singing Bridge and find the treasure-stealing Pirate Piggies on Treasure Island – avoiding the sneaky fox Swiper along the way!

Dora and Boots check out the Map, thanks to Backpack!

Dora’s Pirate Adventure had everything we had come to expect from a Lifelike Touring production, with the usual fabulous character costumes, big-scale props, smoke and lighting effects and high-tech backdrops. From start to finish the story of Dora and her friend’s journey to Treasure Island rollicked along, keeping the enthralled children’s attention – no bored ankle-biters around here!

Intermission was a much-welcomed chance for carers to rush off those little ones needing the toilet, a drink – or a top-up of popcorn and lemonade! There was a great array of Dora merchandise available to buy too, from reasonably-priced Dora plush-dolls to inflatable Dora’s, posters and gorgeous Dora and Boots t-shirts.

The girls and I decided that it was time for our close-up and posed for a green-screen family photo along with Dora – ah – superstars at last, as you can see here…well, maybe not quite!

Time for our close-up – here we are with Dora on Treasure Island!

We all filed back in to the theatre for the second half of the show. All the children were becoming a little restless at this point, chattering and running about, but the hub-bub quickly quietened down when the lights dimmed and all eyes turned to Dora, Diego and their pals – who sailed in on a huge, colourful pirate ship!

Dora and Diego and their pals setting sail for Treasure Island

All along the way in Dora’s Pirate Adventure there was awesome singing, intricate dance routines (how on earth do they manage to do that in their costumes? Amazing!) and of course a liberal sprinkling of those traditional, pantomime-like moments – Dora: “Have you seen Swiper?” Audience of frenzied children: “HE’S BEHIND YOU! Swiper – NO SWIPING!”. Watching the kids getting right into the performance, singing along, dancing in the aisles and interacting with the characters is surely half the fun for the adults!

Finally Treasure Island was discovered, the naughty but apologetic Pirate Pigs apprehended with the treasure, and it was Pirate Party time for everyone – hurray! Bubbles streamed out, the audience jumped up and down in appreciation and were drawn towards the stage to wave their final goodbyes to Dora and her pals – what a great fun show for the whole family Dora’s Pirate Adventure really is – don’t miss it if you have little Dora fans!

Dora’s Pirate Adventure grand finale!

Dora’s Pirate Adventure is touring Australia right now, and you can still get tickets to see the show in Perth and Melbourne! Hurry, for tickets and tour dates visit www.nickjr.com.au/doralive