I took my superheroes to see Elmo's Super Heroes

We had been considering taking our twins to see Sesame Street Live for awhile, but had been putting it off for a variety of reasons. Would our kids be too scared of the characters? I'd already had several "incidents" taking our children to see costumed characters Curious George, Sid the Science Kid and the Easter Bunny that we will just say didn't end well.  Would they be able to sit through the whole show and would it keep their attention?  Three year olds are notorious for short attention spans and when we took them to see their first movie Puss & Boots a few months ago they only made it through the first half of the show before they were ready to go home.  Was the theater going to be a claustrophobic madhouse of crazed kids and parents?  Come on we've all been there! 

Your kids are only young once and how much more family-friendly a production can you go to than Sesame Street Live? So we finally committed to go and I'm pleased to report that it was an excellent experience taking our superheroes to see "Elmo's Super Heroes" at the Fox Theatre in Detroit last week. The show was very engaging, fun and educational for its preschool audience (probably best age range to go would be when your kids are 3 & 4 years old) with some side jokes and dance numbers to keep the parents amused and entertained as well (a very talented Cookie Monster did an Irish jig that would give Mike Flatley a run for his money).  There were a number of skits and songs that reached out to the kids in the audience encouraging them to interact with the Sesame Street characters throughout the performance. 

The premise of the show is that Super Grover had lost his super powers so Elmo and his friends have to become super heroes to replace him.  Elmo's squad goes on a variety of missions where they learn valuable lessons (my favorite was when Oscar the Grouch turns Sesame Street into "Oscar's World").  In the end they use these lessons about things like eating healthy food, making time to exercising, taking care of yourself with bathing & grooming, and getting enough sleep to help restore Super Grover's self-confidence and his super powers.

Our twins were riveted to the show.  They counted with the Count, danced the Pigeon Dance with Bert, clapped along with Ernie, sang with Zoe, and  yelled out answers to Elmo's questions.  They didn't show any fear of the costumed characters and probably could have sat through another hour as they were disappointed that the show wasn't longer.  I was so proud of how well the twins behaved during the show as they sat in their chairs and focused on the performance .  The show kept our kids attention the whole time...wow!  In fact, the crowd wasn't even the headache we were worried it would be either as the seating and exiting of the theater was very organized and most people were very polite and respectful of the other families in the audience.  It was a great experience for our family! So I would say the twins give two thumbs up to Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Super Heroes.

Two warnings though! First, beware at intermission they bring out these really awesome looking Elmo helium balloons  to sell that all the kids want.  At $12 dollars a pop that can be a pricey souvenir for a family with 2 or more kids with them.  I told our kids that their balloons were waiting for them at home and stopped by the Dollar Store after the show.  For $2 dollars I was able to get them some Elmo balloons that are still floating almost a week later and the kids are still playing with.  I'll admit they weren't as nice as the ones at the show, but they were $22 cheaper and hey we're talking about making 3 year olds happy here.  Secondly, my son and daughter have asked us every day since the show when we were going to be able to go back to see their friend Elmo again.  Be prepared for some creative solutions to that question because if you go to see Sesame Street Live your kids are going to have a great time and want to go back again, probably right away.