Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs
The
Review by Emma Shane
© 8 January 2006
I very much enjoyed last
year’s production of Beauty And The Beast, so it was with high
hopes but some trepidation that I ventured down to Poole to see this year’s
production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The fact that
quite a number of last year’s cast would be in it was promising, but would it
be as good as last year’s panto?
Curtain up, overture and into
Act One, Scene 1,The Prologue. Starting with the mirror centre stage,
and a voice-over narrator, the voice of the mirror, setting the scene; the
narrator sounds quite like last year’s. During this narrative, the first cast
member to make a brief appearance is Snow White herself, but it is not a
speaking appearance, so for the purpose of the cast listing in the programme it
doesn’t count. Next on Snow White’s stepmother, The Wicked Queen, played by
magnificent Louise Plowright, to tell how, with The King dead, she
intends to wear his crown and rob her step-daughter of her beauty by treating
her as a scullery maid. Accent-wise, and script-wise her lines make one think a
little of Absolutely Fabulous, and I couldn’t help wondering if
that was inspired by her usual hairstyle? There is a slight surprise here in
her appearance, however, in that her hair is brown and straight, about shoulder
length, with a fringe descending down practically into her blue eyes. Is it a
wig or a change of hair-colour? I couldn’t really tell. But her chiselled
cheekbones strong voice, and commanding stage presonce, mean that she is
immediately recognisable (though one should already have worked that out by
knowing which character she is playing).
I think I commented that last year her costumes only just covered enough
to be decent. No such problems this year. She wears a quite stunning long red
court/evening dress. The top part of which seemed a little reminiscent of a 1970s
style-jumpsuit (bit like in the musical Mamma Mia)! The long
skirt of her dress does rather hide her legs, which is a shame, The skirt
flairs slightly towards the end, a sort of 1970s crossed with 1920s style,
which looks very effective given her tall, well-built, but trim figure. A
complete contrast to the next entrance. A plump Fairy Flutter all in white,
played by Lynette McMorrough. Though she does a reasonable job of
portraying the fairy as a slightly doddery old woman, rather in the style of
June Whitfield, she seems a little uneasy at saying some of the more
ridiculous lines of dialogue, about having wandered into the wrong pantomime,
but deciding to stay anyway, with complete conviction. Nevertheless she comes
across as reasonably professional; and sings a song, during which she and The
Wicked Queen have to dance a little, round each other; she demonstrates that
which she is no spring-chicken, she was clearly knows how to be graceful in
movement (as one would expect from an Arts Educational trained performer). The
prologue continues, in the form of a song, Welcome To The Sixties (from Hairspray)
with altered lyrics, mainly sung by Lynette, to introduce the rest of the
principals, all of whom have bits of dialogue. Right away with this first scene
some of them (namely: The Wicked Queen, Fairy Flutter, and, Snow White) have
already created lasting impressions of what their characters and performances
will be like.
The show proper commences
with Scene 2: The Town Square. Snow White and Igor are going about
their work, sweeping. Presently they stop, as the Lord Chamberlain enters, to
tell them that King Ferdinand From Afar is coming to pay a visit. The
Queen is in a state about it, In fact it’s given her a headache, and Nurse
Slapper has gone to get the Royal Disprin. The Lord Chamberlain and Igor
warn Snow White to keep out of the way. But she seems unperturbed; despite a
double entendre delivered by surprisingly by Brian Cant, of all people, “The
Queen is going bonkers, and you know how big her bonkers are.” Well if
you’re going to put in a double entendre, then it adds to our amusement to give
it to the most unlikely person to say it. Nurse Slapper, enters, with a
large syringe, and, a shopping basket, and proceeds to give away the contents:
A pretend egg, an Oxo cube, three packets of crisps (one of which bursts) and
numerous wrapped sweets, by throwing them into the audience. (Lets hope this
doesn’t get unwrapped too noisily). The dame launches into I’m The Nurse
With A Little Bit Extra. A jolly song, pleasantly sung, but Matthew
Rixon’s diction wasn’t too good. A trumpet heralds what they all think is the
arrival of King Ferdinand, “He’s early” remarks Nurse Slapper, reprised
a moment later by The Queen. In fact it turns out to be his son Prince William,
played by Darren Bennett. The King is ill with flu, Nurse Slapper offers
to go and administer to him, but is firmly rebuffed by politely by The Prince,
and rather less politely by The Lord Chamberlain. Somehow, I can’t quite
remember what it was about, we had a lovely little moment in which The Queen
had to make a request, involving a little dance routine, The Prince also had
something to request, and copied the dance routine, easily, and finally the
Lord Chamberlain had a request to make complete with attempting to copy the
routine, laughably badly; fortunately this fitted in with his character. Last
year, Brian Cant seemed unsure whether he was supposed to be playing a
comic old man or a middle-aged father-figure. This time he is definitely the
comic old man, and as a result seems to fit much better into the more defined
role. Meanwhile Louise Plowright’s Wicked Queen is sweetly gushing to Darren
Bennett’s handsome Prince, and then sharply contrasts it by barking
commands (in a manner a very reminiscent of Donna The Dynamo, only more
controlling) as she exits about how she is going to raise taxes in a way that
would make Tony Blair look popular! I thought it nice to have a very
mild touch of what could be political satire worked in. The Prince and Snow White
find themselves left alone on the stage. Obviously a case of love at first
sight; they sing about their feelings for each other. I’m not sure what the
song really was, but it seemed quite pleasant. As The Prince Darren Bennett
sang it very nicely and of course danced brilliantly (even if he did not have
much complex dancing to do), but was unfortunately somewhat dominated vocally
by Shelley Otway’s Snow White. Unfortunate, in my humble opinion,
because her voice seemed a bit strident and her performance rather too showy
and in your face for my taste. Sometimes less is more. However, she is not
without talent and some showmanship. One can easily believe that she would have
her eyes on the Prince, he is a prince, but I wasn’t too sure what he saw in
her, as yet. Still Darren Bennett is a convincing actor, so if his
Prince says he loves Snow White, we’ll just accept that without wondering too
much why. However, Snow White is by no means the only person with eyes on The
Prince....
Scene 3 in The Royal Kitchen, finds The Prince, The Lord
Chamberlain, and The Queen all demanding an audience The latter enters
commandingly ordering her henchman Igor to kill Snow White, and bring her Snow
White’s heart in a wooden box. He is reluctant, but has no choice; while she
sounds very much like a battleaxe, straight out of G&S! - quite
wonderful. Turning to the audience, she declares how clever she is “Oh yes I
am”, which is of course the audiences cue to say “Oh no you’re not”.
Though this went on about four times, and Louise varied her tone and style each
time. The audience’s part didn’t work too well; mainly I think because Louise
Plowright is such a talented, clever, commanding performer that the
audience isn’t all that inclined to cross her, even when pantomime convention
dictates that is it does; as a result the audience response was a bit
half-hearted. She is now standing before the mirror. We think we’re in for a
classic Disney pantomime scene. But here’s a nice twist. She barks “Hit
it” and The Orchestra strike up something that might be more familiar to
musical theatre fans as a Stepehn Sondheim number from Follies.
And really, I can’t think of a more appropriate showtune to insert into a
pantomime version of Snow White than this one...Who’s That Woman,
otherwise known as The Mirror Number! Ordinarily, I might be a
bit wary on finding such a terrific classic musical theatre number in a
pantomime, it would be too easy for a splendid song to get murdered. But, right
away I knew there was absolutely no danger of that happening here. With the
sensational Louise Plowright to sing it it’s a real treat, and one,
which I don’t think even the Sondheim purists could object to. She sings
brilliantly, and makes the song very much her own, no matter who from Mary
McCarty to Shezwae Powell has sung it before, not to mention those
amazing chorus line-ups you get for backing singers whenever this number is
performed in any major production of Follies. She proves that she
has the voice and wits to do this song full justice; although, judging by her
resume, she hasn’t done all that much Sondheim hitherto; she really should do
more of it, because she clearly has the ability to do it so well. As a Sondheim
performer she could surely rank up there with the likes of: Kathryn Evans,
Louise Gold and Liz Robertson, not to mention Anna Francolini,
Sally-Ann Triplett, and, Tracey Wiles. Her costume fits rather
well into this number. The skirt is so long, that we can’t see her legs too
well, but it does give a good idea of the kind of evening dresses the old-girls
would wear when performing that number in the musical. That coupled with the
fact that she is so tall, and had some decent tap-dancing abilities, means that
in her performance, she also looks very much as though she could be one of the
old-girls straight out of a production of Follies; except that
perhaps she might still be considered a few years too young, mind you Kathryn
Evans and Louise Gold (who are close to her in age) did that show
three years ago, at the Royal Festival Hall. perfectly well. Of
course having a first rate soloist is one thing, but The Mirror Number
really needs an ensemble, and a fine effort is made to provide one. On come two
suave chorus boys, actually Darren Bennett and Anthony Reed (The
Prince and his Assistant) here doubling up) in exactly the right kind of
costume. Both tap dance extremely well, therefore, while Louise taps a fair bit
herself, they handle the bulk of the really complicated dancing, with an
impressive solo each, while Louise weaves in between them indicating with her
hands (and face) when it is their turn for a solo. Part-way through they are
joined at the back by the Senior Chorus. Very much like in Follies
where the Ghosts come on part-way through. All in all the cast, led by Louise
Plowright, did the number justice.
The Mirror Number was going to be a hard act to follow, in fact while
it was lovely to have Louise singing so brilliantly early in the show, instead
of leaving it to the end of the act, I did wonder how they could follow on from
it, not to mention how on earth they would end the first act. Fortunately they
did the most sensible thing, and had a fairly irrelevant comedy moment to start
Scene 4 Outside The Town. Snow White encounters Nurse Slapper
who, in sports gear, is trying to get in shape to attract The Prince. On hear
that The Prince is in love with Snow White the dame initially says “Oh no he
doesn’t”, and here the audience give the customary response “Oh yes he
does” with much more spirit. It’s easier to do that when the subject is a
third character. Or perhaps it’s due in part to Matthew Rixon’s
characterisation. Eventually the dame says it will settle for his assistant. In
the previous scene Nurse Slapper had worn a ginger wig in two wild bunches. But
this time it is a wig that twists the hair into a long point upwards; which
reminded me very much of the fairy Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid in the
Scene 5, finds Igor and Snow White in the Royal Forrest,
he comes at her with a knife, but can’t bring himself to do the deed, confesses
all, and tells Snow White she must hide in the forest, and never come back,
meanwhile he will take The Queen the heart of some animal. Mark Osmond
acts this poor character very well. Although in some ways Igor is mean to be
the stereotype simpleton, Mark gives the character something extra, a bit of
likeability for a start; and in fact the character does not come across as so
stupid as to be ridiculous. But more a poor unfortunate man, who for whatever
reason can’t manage to better himself. He departs, and Snow White falls down
asleep, on comes Fairy Flutter, to wave a spell try and protect her. This time Lynette
McMorrow’s fairy comes across more confidently as a traditional good fairy,
who knows what she is doing.
Scene 6 is back in The Royal Kitchen. Igor
brings The Wicked Queen a box, into which he has put the heart of a fox. The
Prince enters, to ask The Queen for Snow White’s hand in marriage. Here we get
a well written piece of gory farce, in which The Queen is trying to get The
Prince to transfer his affections to her, and (while caressing the box)
carefully hinting at what has become of Snow White (or so she thinks), but
never quite actually saying so. Its a wonderfully crafted scene, that needs
some first rate acting to pull it off, luckily its in the very capable hands of
Darren Bennett and Louise Plowright. Of the two Louise seems to
have the more difficult job, her timing and intonation has to be spot on.
Fortunately, it is not for nothing, that she won Bristol Old Vic’s Chesterton
Lalande Award For Female Student Of 1987. She’s a gifted actress
and a true professional who speaks with utter conviction and knows exactly how
to handle a scene like this one; with all the subtleties of manner, including
facial expressions, needed; sometimes she even changes accent (such as dropping
into an American twang) for added effect. Some of the dialogue did tend towards
the grotesque, perhaps a bit too much so, for the language was distinctly
reminiscent of that Kitchen at The Other End Of Nowhere scene in
Scene 7 has Snow White finding The Dwarves House In The
Forrest, entering and tidying it up, while singing Whistle While
You Work. This was a very pantomimish performance from Shelley Otway,
in a manner that appeared rather more like a comedian doing a parody of a
children’s TV presenter. Therefore while not entirely convincing, as this is a
pantomime it just about passes muster.
Meanwhile in Scene 8,
outside the Town. Enter the Dwarves, played by members of the junior
chorus, retuning from work, singing the traditional Disney song associated with
this fairytale of Hi Ho Hi Ho Its Off To Work We Go.
Scene 9 back at The Dwarves house, finds They
think their is a ‘monster’ in their house, but soon discover, that the
‘monster’, Snow White, of course, is friendly.
We come to the Act one
finale, Scene 10 The Witches Spell. Having already had a song
from The Wicked Queen, I wasn’t expecting another in this act, but was
pleasantly surprised to find a scene very similar to last year’s Act 1 finale.
Centre back of the stage, Louise Plowright commandingly alone in full
regalia as the villainess, with two flying wires. Once again she launches into
what appears to be a pop-style number. Although it is in fact another showtune,
Stephen Schwartz’s Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked.
I thought it not as good a song as last year’s Don’t Rain On My Parade
by Jule Styne. However, with Louise Plowright to
perform it, it is of course extremely well sung. She has a rather unusual flair
for being able to sing pop-style songs rather well, making them fit right into
a musical-theatre context, as was much in evidence during her five year stint
in Mamma Mia. Movement wise, initially she seems a little stiff,
perhaps a result of her flying harness, and a huge skirt. But she makes good
use of her arms (all those ABBA-style arm movements in Mamma Mia evidently
left their muscle memory - to borrow a line from Follies),
and once the flyman raises her from the ground, she appears quite graceful with
her whole body. When practically out of site, her skirt is dropped from its
moorings to descend alone just before the curtain does.
Act Two also opens in a similar manner to last year, with the
Dame doing a song-and-dance number with both Senior and Junior choruses, though
this time in The Town Square. Although Matthew Rixon doesn’t have
quite panache of Chris Hayward, I thought that the song, Sandy Wilson’s My Big Best Shoes (from
the musical Valmouth), was much more suitable, for the song lent itself to
being camped up and messed about with so much more. As far as looks Matthew
Rixon is much more camp than Chris Hayward was, but this is a
pantomime, so actually that works perfectly well. He plays the dame very much
in his own way, and for that he should be applauded. At the number’s
conclusion, Brian Cant’s Lord Chamberlain wanders on, with his arms full
of scrolls, that The Queen is requesting some very strange things for her
cookery. All will be revealed a little later, But first, what of Snow
White, The Lord Chamberlain says to the Dame “You haven’t heard?” It
seems Snow White has disappeared. The Dame repeats this news to The Prince when
he wanders on.
Scene 2, Outside The
Town, The Prince and his
assistant, decide to go and find Snow White, preferably without The Dame who
offers to come and help them (but must go and change a frock). They realise
that all is not right, there’s only one thing to do, fight evil, and When
You’re Fighting Evil its best to do it together. This is a parody of When
You’re Good To Mama from Chicago. Some of the lyric changes were
actually quite minor, such as to the one about scratching each other’s backs.
Halfway through The Dame enters, in new costume, and joins in the song. This is
exactly the sort of brilliant pastiche that fits very well into pantomime. Kander
and Ebb songs, do seem to lend themselves to take-offs remarkably well (For
example look at what Spitting Image & that programme’s Leading Puppeteer
have managed to do with some of them: Tomorrow Belongs To Me, Me
And My Baby, and, not forgetting Class).
We’re in for another
brilliant piece of pastiche in Scene 3, only this time it’s classic Rodgers
and Hammerstein rather than Stephen Sondheim! In The Royal
Kitchen The Wicked Queen is busy cooking something in a cauldron. Igor
enters with some more ingredients, and a few questions. Mark Osmond’s
performance was good last year, but this year his part is much more of a
character, and how deliciously Louise Plowright plays off him, though
being very fair, she does give him ample opportunity to shine too. She has a
gift for being able to play off other performers, and yet they still come
across well. This includes a little joke about the venue, Louise gets to
deliver that one, about them being a bit short staffed at The Lighthouse
Cafe and needing a stew. She’s good at switching quickly and easily
between jokes that are totally in character, and ones that are more about
playing to an audience. She also makes excellent use of her facial expressions
to convey subtly and character to her audience. Becoming tired of Igor’s
questions/conversation, The Queen asks Igor to dive down into the Cauldron to
retrieve something. As she says, he’ll become a part of Snow White’s end.
And thereupon she launches into her third song, My Favourite Things,
with cleverly altered lyrics, so that all the ‘things’ listed are rather
nasty instead of nice. With Louise Plowright’s wonderful diction all
could be heard crystal clearly. Some ‘things’ were pretty gruesome, such
as a rabbit with it’s head pulled off, but most of them weren’t quite that
gory, this is a family show. All the lyrics made a wonderful contrast to the
style of the song, Louise sang it beautifully; doing full justice to the song
vocally, and is more than comparable with both Mary Martin and Julie
Andrews. (She’s probably better than Mary Martin diction and
pronunciation-wise anyway). Meanwhile in the cauldron, Mark moves the stirer,
so it almost looks as if its self-stirring, and eventually holds up the apple.
Louise concludes the scene, by informing the audience that she is going to find
a spell to make her look really ugly, and disguise herself to take the poison
apple to Snow White. The powerful actress comes across spectacularly well in
this scene, as the kind of character one really wouldn’t want to get on the
wrong side of. And in a funny sort of way, even though its an unpleasant
character, one just can’t help admiring her.
Time for another classic bit
of pantomime, “It’s behind you” in Scene 4: The Royal Forrest.
The Prince, his assistant and The Dame, sit on a log to sing Whenever I
Feel Afraid I Whistle A Happy Tune, and are plagued by a ghost, in the
manner of last year’s spiders. Only much better. Firstly the song suited the
situation so perfectly, and secondly the trio this year are all youthful enough
to do it full out without getting tired. This time First The Prince runs off,
then his assistant, and finally a twist, The Dame looks at the ghost, but it is
the ghost that screams and runs off.
Scene 5: Outside the
Town, finds The Dwarves reprising
the classic Hi Ho High Ho It’s Off To Work We Go, and building up
plot tension wondering if their new friend will be alright alone.
Scene 6: Snow White is along in the Dwarves House.
There is a knock at the door, and, well they have to get a moral in somehow.
Snow White says (still sounding a little like a comedian doing a parody) “The
Dwarves told me never to open the door to anyone. But just once can’t hurt, can
it?” She opens the door to a hunchback figure in a black cape and hood,
holding a basket of apples, and speaking with a very classy sweet English
accent (it made me think somewhat of the silky-voiced diva in Two’s A Crowd,
Perhaps that’s just a coincidence). The cloak is a good disguise, one almost
wouldn’t recognise magnificent tall Louise Plowright, except for it
being pretty obvious plot-wise (especially given her comments in Scene 3),
and the fact that every now and then, in asides, she drops into her usual
northern accent, entirely deliberately to make sure the audience know. It’s
actually quite impressive a performer to be able to change accent convincingly
so quickly. Some of them really can’t do it as smartly and quickly as that.
Though well hidden by her cloak, for a brief moment one of her slim ankles did
make an appearance; and her hunchback bore a marked similarity to her own
Sorceress-in-disguise at the beginning of last year’s panto, not to mention a
passing similarity to a certain Sweeney Todd’s Beggar-Woman. She
urges Snow White to take “just one bite” (her voice momentarily
reminding us of last year, when her sorceress had the line “my poisonous
wine takes just one drop....”. She speaks cruel ironic lines with with
wonderful subtly. Once Snow White has taken a bite, there on stage Louise
straightens up to her full 5ft10’ (even taller with her heels on), and throws
back the hood of her cloak, revealing herself, what an amazing contrast! She
sweeps out with a well sung welcome reprise of My Favourite Things,
and, majestic swish of the cloak, just as the Dwarves enter to find Snow White
dead.
Scene 7 is back in The Royal Kitchen, why do
these pantomimes seem to spend so much of their time in Royal Kitchens?
Louise’s Wicked Queen, having ditched the cloak is clearly up to something
more. There is a welcome appearance from Darren, as The Prince, to again ask
for Snow White’s hand in marriage. This time The Wicked Queen almost gives it
to him straight, Snow White is dead. And she promptly offers herself to him.
Surprisingly (plot wise) he seems quite
drawn to her; how well Darren acts that out with his body language, without
having to say a word. We soon learn why, The Queen has concocted a spell to
make herself irresistibly attractive to him. As soon as The Prince hears this
his body takes on a very peculiar contortion, making him look like a cross-eyed
frog. “Kissy Kissy” says The Wicked Queen, in a manner that put me in
mind of Miss Piggy! - Is that what comes from two years digging the dancing
queen with Miss Piggy’s rival Annie Sue Pig (oh alright with Annie Sue’s
muppeteer to be precise)? At this critical moment, if The Prince kisses The
Wicked Queen he will be under her spell forever, Fairy Flutter enters, declares
that her magic is stronger than The Wicked Queen’s “And we’ve had enough of
your spells and wickedness. I’m going to have to do something with you...”
She contemplates turning her “into a musician”, but The Wicked Queen
protests with an insult which of all the cast possibly only Louise Plowright
could get away with delivering on stage, about being put in a pit, at
which bang on cue, led by Simon Gray, The Orchestra of: Andrew Franks,
Mike Potts, Huw Jones, Graeme Lawrence, and, Steve
Hayes poke their heads up out of the orchestra pit to say “Thanks a lot”.
Fairy Flutter decides its not a good idea, and concludes that she’ll just have
to “turn you into Julie Andrews” (could that have been inspired by
Lynette having been to the same stage school as Julie Andrews?), she waves
her wand and Louise exits warbling in her beautiful sweet, yet powerful voice, The
Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music, ending with a gorgeously
impressive high note. A rather more convincing exit for Louise Plowright’s
villainess than last year’s “going off in a huff”. The fairy, sends The
Prince to Snow White, telling him to kiss her.
With Scene 8,
in The Royal Forrest, surrounded by Dwarves that is exactly what
he does. Entering with his graceful dancers movements. This scene is rather
comical, because it seems to take several attempts. But at last having roused
her they dance together a little, and its noticeable that he is a rather better
dancer than her. But perhaps he’s getting used to partnering people who aren’t
as good as he undoubtedly is. The whole scene was underscored with a chorus
humming to what I think was a very strange arrangement of Lionel Bart’s Food
Glorious Food.
Brian Cant and the tricorn hat he is wearing comes into his own
in Scene 9, Outside The Palace With full command of
the stage, knowing exactly what he is doing, he reads out the ‘Guest List’-
which includes The Trumpton Fire Brigrade (cue for some of the
audience to join in there), followed by “Hello’s”, and “Birthdays”,
and finally the Singalong. A big improvement on last year the song this time is
My Hat It Has Three Corners. Firstly I should think many more of
us would be familiar with the song anyway - I remember this song from
programmes like Play School! And secondly even if you didn’t know
it, it would be very easy to pick it up, especially with such an experienced
children’s TV presenter lining the song.
The grand finale, in
stereotype fashion in The Royal Ballroom, finds everyone in new
costumes to take their bows, and sung-through ending by the company.
Well I thought last year’s
production of Beauty And The Beast was pretty good; but this was so much
better overall, and the performances of Brian Cant and Louise
Plowright especially.
Some performers were not
quite up to the standard of their last year’s counterparts, or at least, I felt
that Shelley Otway wasn’t a patch on Cassidy Jansen, and her Snow
White seemed somewhat lacking in likeability (she could perhaps learn a lesson
or two about performance technique from paying attention to Brian Cant
and Louise Plowright). However, as it was a pantomime, Ms Otway’s rather
showy strident style, was not too out of place. I’m sure she would be fine a
role appropriate to her style. Matthew Rixon was a very camp, but
entirely satisfactory dame, although I did think his wigs went perhaps a bit
OTT, without having much stylishness about them. But again, this is a
pantomime, so the designers just about got away with it. When it came to
singing, he stuck to what he could do well, and did things his way, and was
therefore gave a reasonable performance. Lynette McMorrough’s Fairy
Flutter seemed to take a while to find her niche within the show, and though
initially she didn’t come across too well character wise, she sang nicely and
her performance improved steadily throughout the show. Meanwhile both choruses
were at least as good as last year, performing well. The Senior Chorus
consisted of four performers out of: Elanor Awford, Chloe Coulter,
Genna Delahunty, Beatrice Gunner, Natalie Khoshnevis, Charlotte
Kingston, Kate Hurley, Rebecca McAteer, and, Charlotte
McLeod. While the junior chorus consisted as of seven performers out of: Hannah
Adeney, Amy Barnard, Eloise Cornes, Phoebe Cornes, Rachel
Dalton, Jessica Greenham, Hannah Osbourne, Amy Owen, Jessica
Owen, Felice Southwell, Olivia Taylor, Abbie Thompson,
Kari Thompson, Megan Travers, and, Amy Wilson. A good
number of performances were definitely better than last year, partly due to
being better written giving the actors more scope. One fine example of this is Mark
Osmond’s part. Before he had merely played a simpleton. This time his Igor,
though fulfilling the role of stereotype simpleton, comes across much more as a
living breathing character, with feelings, who simply lacks the ability to get
out of the unfortunate station in life in which he has found himself.
Meanwhile, in the form of The Prince and his assistant, Darren Bennett
and Anthony Reed, made a splendid double-act; which made me think, I’d
like to see them tackle the roles of The Dromios in The Boys From
Syracuse. They both acted and danced what little dancing there was
extremely well, particularly in The Mirror Number. However if
this pantomime had one real flaw, it is that Darren Bennett didn’t have
enough opportunities to demonstrate his considerable dancing abilities. It was
nice to see him promoted to an ostensibly more important role (the hero), and
getting to sing (for he sings very nicely) but not at the expense of having
less opportunity to display his talents. I think his role last year gave him
more scope. However, he makes the best of what he’s given. He also manages to
be a very likeable prince, though I couldn’t really fathom what this character
saw in Shelley Otway’s Snow White, we want him to get her, because he
wants to. So full marks to him for being convincing and likeable, even if his
part didn’t quite do him justice. By contrast, Brian Cant was much
better suited to his role this year. He is not a young man, and last year,
despite his obvious professionalism, seemed to show distinct signs of fatigue.
This time he had less to do, spending much of the action wandering on at odd
intervals with various little bits and pieces. The result was that when he came
to do the penultimate scene, he still seemed quite fresh, and well able command
the stage alone, keeping the whole audience, especially the children,
entertained, just as he has done for so much of his career. It was a lovely
performance, a real reminder to any of us who grew up watching Play
School et al, just what a great entertainer of an actor he is. But good
though most of the cast are, if there is just one absolute star turn, then it
is that of the piece’s villainess, Louise Plowright as The Wicked Queen.
A true professional, this supertrouper was well worth seeing last year, but
this year she’s even better. On tip top sparkling form, as one should expect
from a
All in all, well worth
travelling to