DISNEY favourite Winnie the Pooh and friends have taken a look around Southampton ahead of the new musical's debut UK tour appearance at Mayflower Theatre.
Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, and Owl and Tigger too have taken in historic and modern day sights including The Bargate and Ocean Village before checking out the stage they're set to appear on during half term.
Featuring the Sherman Brothers’ classic Grammy Award-winning music with further songs by A.A. Milne, this beautiful fresh stage adaptation is told with stunning life-sized puppetry through the eyes of the characters we all know and love, in a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood.
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Brought to the stage by renowned family entertainment creator Jonathan Rockefeller, this new adventure heads to the UK following a record-breaking New York premiere in 2021.
He told the Daily Echo: "It’s everything you know and love about Winnie the Pooh.
"You’ll really feel part of the Hundred Acre Wood from the moment you walk into the theatre. There’ll be characters and vignettes you’re familiar with - but in a new adventure.
"What’s wonderful is that we’ve been able to take A.A. Milne’s brilliant stories, Disney’s great animated featurettes and fantastic songs, and mix it all up into a new show. So even if you are incredibly familiar with all those aspects, it’s all in a completely new context. We’re paying respect to the author, the animators and the Sherman Brothers songs but putting our own spin on it."
In a brand new story inspired by the books and screen stories, Pooh meets his best friend Christopher Robin every day for honey after breakfast. But then one day, Christopher isn’t there and Pooh has to fend for himself and find some honey. Along the way, he encounters the likes of Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Owl, Kanga, Roo and Tigger too.
The show includes such songs as Winnie the Pooh, A Rather Blustery Day and The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers, which were written by multiple Grammy Awards winners Robert and Richard Sherman for various animated featurettes and anthologies. It also has some songs by author A.A. Milne and an original score by Nate Edmondson, a longtime collaborator of Rockefeller.
Winnie the Pooh runs from May 31 to June 4. Tickets from mayflower.org.uk
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