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The Hi-5 Circus Stage Show
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This was published 12 years ago

The Hi-5 Circus Stage Show

Barnum and Bailey, eat you heart out: the Hi-5 circus is in town. Flying through the air with the greatest of ease? Check. Walking the tightrope, clowning around, animal antics? Ditto.

But these are not your archetypal circus performers and the refined Hamer Hall makes an unlikely big top - never before have so many under-fives behaved so raucously in the hallowed confines and got away with it.

In fact, such is their versatility, the ever-ebullient television quintet have a promising alternative career if they ever tire of preschool-idol status.

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The internationally famous five, who have just returned from touring the show in Singapore, burst on to the eye-catching set by Julio Himede in a blaze of colour and glory.

Those with a niggling unease about exaggerated lip liner and oversized noses need not fear. The Happy Hi-5 Clowns put to rest any childhood hang-ups about jester jocularity with a gentle warm-up and not a red nose in sight.

Charli Delaney, resplendent in fuchsia tutu and top hat, displayed hand-clapping razzamatazz in her show opener, as well as fantastic gymnastics in Balancing Is My Skill.

A collective gasp ensued when Kellie Hoggart displayed feats of daring with some fancy footwork on the tightrope, no safety net required, in the confidence-boosting I Can Do Anything If I Try.

The larger-than-life Nathan Foley was suitably cast as the "strongest man in the world". His brawn was matched by power vocals and all the right moves.

Small wonder Sun Park, as a magical circus fairy, pulled an elephant out of thin air in the loping Elephants Trunk. Offsider Jup-Jup exhibits his own brand of tricky business.

The replacement for recently departed original member Tim Harding, his former understudy Stevie Nicholson, exudes the same honest-to-goodness persona as his predecessor. His chicken imitation had even the older set sniggering.

Show-stopper and new track Wow elicited just such a reaction, as a collective trapeze act puts a new slant on the term "high five".

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