Sammy J and the Forest of Dreams

Sammy J in The Forest of Dreams
At The Bosco
For Comedy Festival

If cute puppets that swear sometimes and take you on a bit of a magical journey that’s a little cynical at the same time, then Sammy J in The Forest of Dreams is for you. If you grew up force fed Disney movies till you wanted to choke on your own ink and paint puke, then you know you’re at home from the very first opening number.
Sammy J, Moosehead recipient and apparently a star of TV’s Spicks and Specks, teams up with award winning puppeteer Heath McIvor to present exactly what you expect from a cute musical comic and a collection of “each cuter than the last” puppets. Sammy J, in an attempt to escape an unpaid power bill, throws himself into a magical portal and ends up in the Forest of Dreams where he meets a succession of forest creatures, takes on the evil king, foments revolution and learns how to be less of a dick.
It’s fairly standard fair plot wise for a fantasy and that leaves us on comfortable ground to sit back and enjoy the puppety fun. The gags lag a little somewhere around the middle of the show which is more than likely due to the need to get on with the plot after a certain point. Of course the Bosco is hellishly hot on a sold out night, which it was and I suspect will continue to be, which probably doesn’t make it easy to keep up that sparkle white musical comedy smile around the thirty minute mark. Never the less, a little comedy paunch around the middle of the show is forgivable as the audience never gets actively bored and I’m probably a hell of a lot more critical than most of the audience who ooohed and awwwed their way right on through.
The songs are catchy, the puppetry excellent and if you don’t come away from the show at least humming Fuck You Disney then you weren’t damn well paying attention.
Of course, we never actually get to see Sammy J get home or to find out if the power company have turned his lights back on, but then I guess that leaves us room for a sequel. It’s a show that certainly deserves one.

Danny Episode