Believe – The Story of Santa Claus

How did Santa come to be? That’s the big question posed by the creators of this delightful original new musical and they answer it with lots of colour, humour, song, dance, a talking tree and large stuffed reindeers.

Director Christie Koppe impressively filled the large canvass of the wide stage. At one end was a fireplace where Mrs Claus (Melody Beck) read a bedtime story to children Peppermint and Candy.

At the other end of the stage was a colour wheel used to paint toys in the wintery village of Boralia. An accident caused the wheel to stop, because too much glue had been poured into the works, so the wheel had come to an abrupt halt.

The stuck together elves Frizzle (Bronte Tonkins) and Frazzle (Piper Farrell) head off on an adventure dancing as best they can Siamese twin style. It was the first of many cute song and choreography routines from choreographer Stephanie Edmonds.

The duo arrives at a palace where Princess Ariana (Susana Downes) is being married off by her parents at a ball where dorky suitors named Peppermint, Butterscotch and Profiterole bid for her hand. She races out to the forest at the end of the first act.

It must be said that this two act musical kept the attention of the little ones in the audience and brought regular smiles to the faces of the grown-ups.

Bringing a smile to the face of the Princess was the Toy Maker played by Rob Hale. Can he fix the paint wheel, woo a Princess and have a future career in the toy manufacturing business?

To find out you’ll have to see the musical when it returns for another season.  The writer composers Mark and Janine Edmonds – whose main business includes Christmas activation in shopping centres – have spent six years crafting the production.

The musical included an impressive digital animation, a talking tree, a whole squadron of reindeers and a large sleigh which perhaps was borrowed from the neighbouring Westfield.

Their songs had a range of styles with a Fred Astaire style can tap routine a highlight.

Believe – The Story of Santa Claus is a Christmas theatrical treat.

David Spicer