Note: This review is from the 2018 Fringe

We caught up with producer, Dean Penn, of Hit the Mark Theatre for a quick chat about the return of the popular family show Animalphabet! The Musical

Describe your show in 3 words…

Fabulous Family Fun.

Now give us a bit more detail on the show…

AnimAlphabet is a musical about music. A story of our hero Colin the Country Cockatoo and his mission to save sound from the dastardly duck called Calando. Colin the Cockatoo is helped by six friends who each represent a note on the musical stave, from the A of Alligator to the G of Giraffe (that’s Geoff the Geordie Jazz Giraffe) and every note in between. With fun catchy pop music by Al and Sam of the platinum selling pop band the Hoosiers it’s sometimes difficult to know who enjoys AnimAlphabet more, the children or their grown ups. It’s a great show for all ages.

When choosing something to see at the festival, why should families choose your show?

AnimAlphabet has really catchy songs combined with bright, colourful characters, puppets and a crazy story of friendship, loss and reconciliation. It’s a fun musical journey for all the family that is often the pick of the Fringe for many of our audience.

What are you looking forward to seeing at the festival this year?

I’m looking forward to catching Ben Hanlin: 50 – 50 magic tricks in 50 minutes at the King Dome; Russian Roulette, an improvised show about Russian Literature at Just The Tonic; and Six at Underbelly as the music is amazing and a friend is in the show.

What’s next for your company?

We are and will be working on other musical productions in the future. We recently adapted Alice In Wonderland into a new musical. The show will soon be available to licence and the music is available on iTunes and other major music platforms. AnimAlphabet still has a very bright (and very colourful) future. Audiences in Edinburgh have been incredible this year and the tour, Camp Bestival and Latitude Festival performances were brilliant but there’s still a lot of the UK we haven’t visited yet. AnimAlphabet will be touring China next June and we are in discussion about touring other international destinations next year as well.

Animalphabet! The Musical is @ Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until Mon 27 Aug

The Wee Review of  Animalphabet! The Musical (2017) can be found here