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The Stage on Imagine's Production of Cinderella at Loughborough Town Hall - 2010/11
Pity the poor audience members secretly nominated by their families for a spot of ritual humiliation on the Loughborough Town Hall stage. They’re the butt of whatever a gleeful Martin Ballard throws at them, and this year it’s the threat of a snog from himself as Halitosia and Pablo Raybould as Odouria. “Have I swallowed your chewing gum or have you got bad catarrh?,” he demands of one man.
Ballard and Raybould must be two of the roughest dames in the business, dressed at one point as handbags and so worse for wear the morning after the ball that there’s mention of shaving their tongues.
But they’re beautifully counterbalanced by the girls, in Alice Mogg’s Cinderella, Emily Latham’s fine, upstanding Prince Charming and Sally Peerless’ Dandini, played as a super-efficient PA. Charlie Guest is a bundle of energy as Buttons.
The script is alwaus good at Loughborough pantos, and this one manages to make even the story of Cinderella sound as though it’s being told for the first time. With lively dancing, a flying horse for the transformation scene and a show-stealing moment from a miniature Cinderella in the audience, the show exudes happiness from every pore.
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The Stage on Imagine's production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Eden Court, Inverness - 2009/10
WHEN your ears start ringing, and you are at the stage when you almost can't hear yourself think for the screams of delight, you know you are on a winner.
Jack and The Beanstalk, Imagine Theatre's first pantomime in Inverness, is just that, a surefire winner that had the younger members of the audience screaming with joy and bouncing like jumping beans having been wound up by the baddie, Fleshcreep, played for laughs by Connor McAllister.
The classic fairytale of Jack Trott's valiant struggle to defeat the wicked giant who makes life tough for the Merrydale villagers, has had new life breathed into it with a fresh, lively look and fast-paced sketches, all served with a healthy dollop of laughter.
The laughs come thick and fast via Iain Lauchlan, the show's writer and director and the chap behind the Tweenies, who plays Dame Trott and her youngest son, Simple Simon, played by Karl Woolley, the show's assistant director.
The duo have worked together numerous times before and it shows – the two bounce gags off each like it's the most natural thing in the world.
Audience participation features highly and pre-show, people can nominate a man in their life to take part in a messy sketch which sees Dame Trott and Simon have a bash at making their own version of an Inverness favourite, local baker Harry Gow's dream ring cakes.
On Friday night, the “victim” was none other than former Dons footballer Brian Irvine, who even when splattered with cream, revealed he had lost none of the star quality he showed on the pitch at Pittodrie.
With outrageous costumes, superb dancers, new songs, an amazing beanstalk and the cutest cow in pantoland, and a sprinkling of local references, this panto has it all, but there's more.
The scenes with the giant are stunning, but to say any more would spoil the surprise for those yet to see this festive, magical show.
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The Stage on WISH’s production of Aladdin at Loughborough Town Hall – 2008/9
Loughborough’s traditional panto is unbeatable. Bigger investment has followed increasing success, so the costumes are more sumptuous and the special effects more magical than ever. There’s a breathtaking flying carpet sequence, a panto elephant, a stunning dragon’s mouth cave.
But it’s still the fresh and inventive script and the total dedication to the story that make the show outstanding. There’s no dependence on soaps and reality shows, no allusions to popular culture. It’s full of bang, crash and wallop, including the sort of slapstick that has Martin Ballard’s Widow Twankey and Neil Bull’s Wishee Washee skidding around in wellies. This seasoned pair exhaust all the possibilities of a joke without ever exhausting the audience’s appetite for it.
It’s bold, bright, fast-moving and impeccably timed. Nick Barclay makes a welcome return as the cloak-swirling, lip-curling Abanazar. Leon Craig is a flamboyant Genie of the Lamp, nutty Sgt Ping and wobbly-mouthed Emperor, playing each role more outrageously than the last. Emily Latham makes her professional debut as a very engaging Aladdin, well matched with Alice McGreevy as Princess Baldroubadour, and there’s not a weak link in the cast.
Bags of participation too, from an audience who warmed to every bit of it.
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The Stage on WISH’s production of Dick Whittington at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry – 2008/9
Good and evil fight over London Town - with an adventure at sea in the process - in the Belgrade’s Dick Whittington.
King Rat is played with great mobster quality by Sion Lloyd, who sits on a hydraulic loo which goes up and down when he is enthroned. Great fun. He whips up a good measure of hissing and booing, nicely counterbalanced by the gutsy Bow Bells Fairy, played by Anna Mitcham.
Caroline Head is great as Dick with lots of thigh-slapping and a clear, bright voice as she ventures out to make her fortune in London Town. Andy Hockley is back again in his familiar role as the dame, this time as Sarah the Cook, with sidekick and son idle Jack played with panache by Marc Borthwick.
This is a traditional pantomime with all the essential elements, including a daft ghost joke and the cooking sketch, plus all the ‘behind yous’ you can muster.
All the songs are original and tuneful, written by Liz Kitchen and orchestrated by Tim Spencer. Incredible set design by Sarah Burton has the cast on the bow end of an enormous ship rolling on the sea. You won’t be disappointed.
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The Stage on WISH’s production of Aladdin at the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl – 2008/9
This version of the three-wish magic lamp comes from the creators of TV’s The Tweenies, so no surprise that they give they give the youngsters exactly what they want. There are knock-about Keystone Kops, a messy slosh scene involving a volunteer from the audience, a quite delightful elephant, a high flying magic carpet and much more besides opportunities for shouted responses. It all makes for feel-good family entertainment.
Chris Corcoran is a laid-back Wishee Washee, whose casual asides continually amuse, while his dealing with the children who venture on stage is masterly. The ever-popular Tony Wright as Widow Twankey is into everything, displaying his versatility as well as some eye-catching costumes. The authoritative Abanazar of Chris Morgan is not at all the usual hiss and boo villain.
Against the trend, director Steve Boden opts for a traditional female principal boy in the title role, the spirited Jamie Lee Mason, well partnered by the pretty, petite Princess of Robyn Lee. Vern Griffiths proves a real treat as a comical fast-talking Genie.
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The Stage on WISH’s production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe – 2008/9
This may be a traditional telling of the age-old fairytale, but it is lifted head and shoulders above other productions by being slightly daring. For instance, while so many pantos play safe with tired and unimaginative comedy routines, director Robert Marsden hasn’t been afraid to bring back good old, messy, slapstick.
So we have Kevin McGreevy’s Simple Simon sloshing and sliding around with Chris Casserly, whose understated Dame Trott is a sheer joy. Meanwhile, panto regular Frazer Hines opts for comedy over villainy for his Fleshcreep and it works.
There’s an excellent video insert featuring the dame in a nearby shopping centre and, refreshingly, the young local dancers aren’t confined to playing sweet village children. At one point they are the driving force behind flying fluorescent vegetables and watering cans and in another particularly effective scene, in the giant’s castle, they play evil cockroaches.
Carolynne Good and Kerry Newell make a handsome pair as Princess Tamara and Jack Trott, while Lynne McGranger has fun as a decidedly Aussie fairy. With hardworking McGreevy and Casserly as the driving force, this show feels fresh and energised yet still provides all the elements of a good, old-fashioned panto.
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The Glasgow Herald on WISH’s production of Mother Goose at the Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock - 2008/9
It's a "pinch-me, I'm seeing things" sensation: Jack, the lad who will eventually win Jill, is a Principal Boy! That most endangered species in the whole of the pantosphere - and the only one I've seen in more than a score of shows - can indeed be found on-stage in Kilmarnock, where Lila Clements is striding out in the splendidly long-legged foot-steps of tradition and proving a dashing beau for Adele Rankin's Jill, a sweet lass who has to put up with an embarrassingly money-grubbing father, Squire Skinflint, and the amorous advances of a suavely corrupting Demon Discontent.
James McAnerney's baddie connives like Iago's craftier twin, and Stevie Hannan's gleefully stingy squire has no chance when Discontent suggests crime as a get-rich-quick strategy. As for Mother Goose: well, Discontent knows her Achilles heel - and, like the rest of her, it needs rejuvenation.
If Andrew Agnew is an irresistibly funny chesty-jesty stoatir of a Dame before plunging into the Pool of Youth, then apres-spa his Mother Goose goes into overdrive. Agnew is in his element: the repartee and ripostes sound spontaneous, the camp femininity is nicely gauged and the result is full-on panto, not drag. How director Liam Dolan manages to orchestrate all this and play the energetically stupid Archie - who cops bucketloads of gloop in the messiest slapstick around - is as much of a wonder as a goose that lays glittering eggs. Their gold standard can't be vouched for, but the content of this exuberant panto is an unalloyed joy
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The Stage on WISH’s production of Sleeping Beauty at Loughborough Town Hall – 2007/8
Someone from the Loughborough audience always gets singled out for a bit of ritual humiliation, and the hapless Henry took his medicine very well from Nurse Nanny Nora (Martin Ballard). They pull out all the stops here and you get the warmest feeling that the town can’t wait for panto time to come around again.
Ballard’s double act with the irrepressible Neil Bull as Josh the Jester (audience response, “Gosh, Josh, You’re Posh!”) includes lashings of slapstick, performed by Ballard in a fairy cake costume that has him skidding in the foam. It’s a very dynamic show altogether, with big musical numbers like the Party Mega Mix for the audience to join in with gusto, and some dazzling special effects like a UV flying time machine and a giant dragon.
Colleen Daley is a strong and convincing presence as the wicked fairy, Carabosse, and Miranda Tatton-Brown doubles delightfully as a confused Cockney fairy, Azuriel, and the Princess Belle. Loughborough is faithful to the Principal Boy tradition and has found just the exponent in Katie Burrell. She’s even feisty enough to be able to get the Dame and Jester back on the script without the whole thing falling apart. Marvellous.
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BBC.co.uk on WISH’s production of Aladdin at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry – 2007/8
Do you fancy a panto to kick-start your festive spirits? Then get yourself off to the Belgrade to see Aladdin, it won’t let you down!
Because I took my two young nieces along with me I thought I’d let them be the judges of whether I would write a good review or not. And the verdict? They had a great time. So good in fact that they were still singing the songs the next day!
It was the panto's opening week and I was expecting a few slip ups – but there weren’t any, other than in the very messy scene where Wishee Washee and Window Twankey do the laundry!
There were lots of laughs throughout and the audience didn’t need much waking-up like I’ve noticed at other pantos. They were straight into all the banter and were singing along happily.
Mark Powlett as Wishee Washee and writer Ian Lauchlan as Widow Twankey were both full of energy and got the most giggles. And even though I sometimes knew what was coming next, it still made me laugh. Between them they really did steal the show.
Flamboyant costumes, amazing sets and some really good special effects, including a flying carpet scene, all helped to make it a real good panto which I would recommend to anyone.
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BBC.co.uk on Snow White at Bedworth Civic Hall – 2006/7
So well done to the Civic on seizing the opportunity to get a hold of arguably the finest panto script in the whole of the land.
The question I hear you ask is why was it so good? Well the plot was full to the brim with tradition. Instead of being a vehicle for a has-been celebrity there was slapstick, sing-a-longs, gags for all generations and a larger than life dame. Although in this production the evil Queen Evilynn, played by Colleen Daley, stole the show with a truly wicked display.
Our very own Bob Brolly served up some great lines as the voice of the mirror and thanks to some comic interplay between Dame Bree Brightshine (Pablo Raybould) and Will the Jester (Kevin McGreevy) there was plenty of laughter bouncing off the walls of the Civic Hall.
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The Stage on WISH’s production of Dick Whittington at Loughborough Town Hall – 2005/6
Loughborough’s panto should rank as one of the very best in the Midlands, something due in part to the wittiest of writing by Iain Lauchlan and Will Brenton. So many pantomimes have tired scripts that when a fresh offering like this comes along, it really stands out and pays the audience a compliment.
The traditional gags are all here of course but the difference is that everyone has a real character to get inside and original lines to say. King Rat (Shaun Hennessy), for example, is no demon king but an unsavoury sewer rat with a smelly sidekick, Sniff (Gavin Quigley), and a gangster pack in pinstripes and kipper ties.
Neil Bull’s Idle Jack is the most ebullient fall guy, even able to launch himself sideways through an open window, and Martin Ballard is a storming Sarah the Cook. It is absolute mayhem, crazy stuff, with original elements even in the slapstick. Yet it is also manages to be a simple story told with integrity, and a lot of that is down to the clear performances of Colleen Daley as Jack and Anna Mitcham as Alice. A five-star production, and from a town hall rather than a major theatre. Brilliant.