I’ve seen a lot of theatre. I’ve been in a lot of theatre acting myself. I have never, not ever, seen anything quite like the spectacular (that is the only way it can be described) that I saw on Friday night. Florence and I were invited to watch the world premiere of Ice Age Live which is set for a mammoth (of the woolly kind I presume) FIVE year, five continent tour! I can’t imagine planning something that will run for 5 years and thinking about it objectively I would say 5 years is too long, surely? Thinking about it like I do now, having seen the show, I have to say that I suspect 5 years won’t be enough time.There’s no way EVERYONE will get to see it unless it runs for like forever or something and everyone should, everyone really, really should!

So we rocked up to the blue carpet (as if we do this sort of thing on a regular basis – ha, we wish) and sauntered down it to meet Sid the sloth! We felt like stars and my sister and Florence were in their absolute elements. To say we’re a family of performers is an understatement and I think we all enjoy a little lime light! On Friday night we felt well and truly in it and even though I know the photographers cameras weren’t really popping for us it was fun to pretend and meeting Sid was just the start of what became a wonderful night to remember!

Moving into the party before the show and we enjoyed some celeb spotting mixed with wine drinking, ice cream factory indulgence and face painting! The children were literally having an awesome time (sans wine drinking – that was for us) and this was all before the show had begun! When we took our seats in the arena the excitement in the air was almost touchable so vibrant was it! The whole stadium was smiling and chattering excitedly and we were all waiting for the show to start, wondering could the costumes really be as awe-inspiring as the mutter in the pre show party had suggested and trying to fathom how on earth they were going to do it all on the ice rink in the centre of the arena?! The expectations were high which doesn’t always mean the show is good, often it can make it a bit of a let down. And then… The show begun and we knew in an instant that everything we’d heard about how jaw dropping everything was going to be was true! We saw in the first few seconds of the show that Ice Age Live is pretty special indeed!

Fun, face painting and ice cream at the pre show party!

You could almost taste the excitement in the arena pre show! Look at my smile, everyone had the same expression!

Now obviously I couldn’t use the flash on my camera during the show and being the technophobe that I am you’ll have to forgive me for not knowing how to turn it off. This means that my pictures of the actual show are taken with my camera phone and really and truly of very poor quality. I will try then to describe to you in my best words possible how good the show is and what a truly amazing sight it is to watch; I’m not sure there are words to describe it in full but I shall do my best!

The show’s creative director is Guy Caron who was Cirque du Soleil’s first artistic director, this should give you some sort of idea of the scale and exuberance of the show! The rest of the creative team from the choreographers to the set designers and the sound to video content engineers are from all over the globe! Just as with the cast and everyone involved with the show, they have all been hand-picked from wherever they live in the world to come together, the best of the best, the creme de la creme if you will and join forces to make one stupendous force of creation and they have created possibly the most earth shattering arena show you could ever imagine! It’s easy to see how they encountered a few minor technical hitches in the previews (all ironed out now) because how everything managed to run smoothly is beyond me? It took 26 weeks to create the costumes and sets with each character needing 3,000 hours of hand crafting! There was just so much involved and so many cast and crew members that I don’t know how anyone would begin to try to imagine it working let alone expect it to, but boy does it… The Ice Age Live team have been working 70 hour weeks to pull this off and I have to say, all their hard work has paid off now! (Not that they get to stop yet of course)!

So, all the fave characters; Peaches, Manny, Sid, Diego, Ellie and more are all there and present and joining them are a few new ones too! This Ice Age story combines elements from all the films but is a brand new and unique tale so new faces like the flightless birds (the baddies of the story); Shadow, Duke, Thorn and Chaos provide essential viewing! Florence was a little bit scared in moments if I’m honest, and came to sit on my lap but when asked if she’d like to skip out for a few minutes she firmly said ‘NO, I don’t want to miss the show!’ She like the rest of us just couldn’t peel her eyes away! There is just so much to see, it’s a marathon for the eyes and reminded me of the opening ceremony for the Olympics in grandeur. The video set which is the back drop is so cleverly done with overlapping scenes to project 3D images of mountains, jungles… amazing-ness! Right at the beginning the snow on the mountain cracks causing an avalanche and from that moment of setting the presidente, none of it didn’t live up! And when you first see the characters, with Manny and Ellie at 3,60m high, 2,50m wide and 4,20m in length you truly realise the scale of this thing! It’s open mouth stuff! How they got those two moving I’ve no idea and I just can’t work out how some of the actors managed to skate in full costume but then I don’t have to, all I had to do was sit back and enjoy, which I did!

As I said, my pictures are not of great quality and do not do it justice but perhaps it shows a fragment of how utterly amazing this show is on the stage! Just look at the size of the characters! 

The storyline is sweet with baby Peaches needing rescuing from the flightless birds after going in search of greener land and is easy for a little one to follow but the storyline being good is just a bonus! It’s the acrobatics, the costumes, the ensemble ice skaters, the theatrics which make the show just so, well, so immeasurable! This is a spectacular spectacle! This is NOT to be compared to anything else… By the time the show came to an end (two 50 minute halves with an interval) we felt exhausted with the excitement, it had been so good, such an event, we couldn’t quite believe it! The finale is so wonderful and with characters dancing round the edge encouraging everyone to join in we had yet another energy surge! By the time giant firework sparklers were flying, even coming out of the heels of the skaters boots, we were in a perpetual state of high anyway but it was still impressive! And the after show party was yet to come too!

So as if we hadn’t been lucky enough we were invited to the after party and got to mingle with the celebs again! Goodness knows who they must have thought we were as we tried ever so hard not to embarrass ourselves! Florence had fallen asleep by the time we got to the hotel where it was being held which was a shame but she isn’t even three yet so I think it’s understandable! For the rest of our party we indulged in the champagne, yummy food and took many spins on the glittery dance floor shaking our thang to a brilliant live band! My Dad and Step Mum had come with us too and it was so much fun dancing with my Dad and sister while my Step Mum very kindly looked after a sleeping Florence and took pictures of us dancing!! At one point we were all doing the twist and I looked round and saw Debbie from The Only Way Is Essex doing the same – I’m a big TOWIE fan, how good!

Then the cast came in and were all given little poseys of flowers and one of them gave hers to my 11-year-old sister Phoebe who was thrilled! What a perfect ending to a perfect night! Florence loved it and so did all the other little’n’s around us! I should think never has there been more children and less moaning in one place, they were all glued! As for the grown ups – well, we couldn’t help but love it too! What a show!

Look at that dance floor – it was amazing and Phoebe and I were one of the firsts on!

To find out more about the show and to book on-line tickets see the website www.iceagelive.com and for all other tickets (which start at £20) contact the venue of your choice or call 08444 996670.