Snow White at DeMontfort Hall

 

Review by Paul Towers, 14/12/24

Snow White by Eric Potts & Janice Dunn

Directed by Janice Dunn

Produced by Imagine Theatre Ltd

At DeMontfort Hall until Sunday 5^th January 2025

Panto season is in full swing and this weekend I was at, in my humble opinion, the best that Leicester has to offer with Snow White at DeMontfort Hall.

The start of the run has had a minor hiccup when Gyasi Sheppy, who was playing Prince Laurance, had to pull out due to family issues. Thankfully Leicester favourite Anthony Costa of Blue is able to step in from 17^th December. The Prince’s understudy, choreographer Stuart Rogers, stepped into the breach and, if I am honest, you can’t see the join! It was like he was cast from the start.

So it was with mounting excitement that the sold out auditorium waved their light sticks and munched down on bags of Haribo expectantly.

The ensemble of eight dancers/singers and, as we eventually discovered, puppeteers opened the show backing up the first song from Snow White (Tash Bacarese-Hamilton). However it wasn’t long before the wicked stepmother in the shape of Queen Morgania (the deliciously fiery Divina De Campo) was spitting venom at all and sundry. Including the audience.

Attempting to massage the ego of the Queen was The Spirit of The Mirror (Leicester’s own Sam Bailey) while the court lackies, Nurse Nora (Jack Ballard) and Muddles (Jared Christmas) are torn between obeying the monstrous monarch and protecting Snow White.

These days nobody outside of London can afford to use real dwarves in panto so puppets have replaced them and Abigail Matthews has an effective Seven Dwarves operated by the ensemble.

To further people the village and court there are three Junior Ensembles culled from local schools

Snow White runs at DeMontfort Hall until Sunday 5^th January 2025

https://www.demontforthall.co.uk

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 

Sleeping Beauty

 

Review by Paul Towers, 13/12/24

Sleeping Beauty, devised and directed by John Bale

Musical Direction by Paul Timms, choreography by Caroline Walsh

Produced by Leicester Drama Society

At The Little Theatre until Sunday 5^th January 2025

As we climbed the stairs to the auditorium the noise got louder as a sold out audience of school children bounced up and down in anticipation of the show. It is pantomime time at The Little Theatre, which means Christmas is just round the corner.

This year’s offering, stewarded by John Bale as always, is Sleeping Beauty. The eternal tale of the Princess Aurora (Sophie May), her father King Sat-Upon of Arcadia (Allan Smith in his first panto role) and the trials of navigating a dysfunctional family dynamic.

At the princess’s christening her aunt Carabosse (Olivia Phillips) is missed off the invitation list and she swears a terrible vengeance by cursing the princess to prick her finger and die on her 16^th birthday. This is mitigated by Fairy Fairweather (Rose Bale) so she only has to sleep for 100 years and be awoken by a handsome Prince Rupert (Thom Jones).

To add mirth and mayhem to the mix there is Dame Nanny Night-Nurse (John Bale) in ever more outrageous costumes and her sidekick Tickle the Jester (Russell Webster).

A coterie of six leggy dancers wearing even more glamorous costumes populate the castle.

This production is a very traditional pantomime so expect lots of groaning puns, convoluted rhymes and plenty of songs shoe-horned into the plot. The script includes lots of modern social references and, while very family friendly, there are a few sly gags for the grown ups. Just so they don’t feel left out.

With hissing and booing galore last night’s Pess Night audience had a terrific time.

Sleeping Beauty runs at The Little Theatre until Sunday 5^th January 2025. Tickets are selling fast so don’t delay.

https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 

Snow White

 

Review by Paul Towers, 29/11//24

Snow White by Morgan Brind

Directed by Morgan Brind

Produced by Little Wolf Entertainment

At Loughborough Town Hall until Sunday 5^th January 2025

This years offering at Loughborough Town Hall is another Little Wolf triumph. Their Snow White is the most traditional of pantomimes with goodies and baddies enough to boo, hiss and cheer right from the start.

The tone of the show is set right from the beginning when Queen Nocturna (Cara Dudgeon) spits her venom on the audience and pulls off a fabulous stooge gag. Snow White (Emma Robertson) is saccharine goodness personified as she is banished from court by the wicked queen who covets her inheritance. It is only through the squeamishness of vegan Hamish The Huntsman (Stuart Turner) that she escapes having her heart ripped out (a nice bit of horror for the kiddies!).

Alone in the woods she stumbles upon the house of seven banished diamond miners (cue predictable gags about Maggie shutting the mines). Normally the dwarves would be played by children or even, budget permitting, actual dwarves. But in this case they are cleverly played by puppets. These are so innovative as have to be seen to be believed. There are also some traditional woodland animals played by the junior team members.

Of course every panto has to have a Dame and Snow White has a master (mistress?) of the art in Matthew Siveter’s Dame Cilla Bang (geddit?) who is ably assisted by Keanu Leaves (Elliot Coombe) as the Buttons-esque junior idiot.

For some romantic interest for Snow White there is Prince Rupert  (Ben Williamson-Jones), thick as mince and far too nice for his own good.

So there we have the headline characters and all the elements of a traditional pantomime are ready and waiting. These elements then have to have a good script to hang them on and Morgan Brind’s is a cracker. Whip sharp and right up to date without losing any of the story. There is slapstick, messy routines and great prop routines. Everything you could ask for. Both adults and children in the audience were howling with laughter. Which is as it should be.

Snow White runs at Loughborough Town Hall until 5^th January 2025

https://www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 

My Fair Lady

 

Review by Paul Towers, 28/11/24

My Fair Lady book & lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe

Directed by Nikolai Foster

Produced by Curve

At Curve til Saturday 4^th January 2025

Originally adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion My Fair Lady was first staged as a musical in 1956. Since then it has been revived and revived.

Professor Henry Higgins (David Seadon-Young) is a bombastic, hyperactive misogynistic expert in linguistics. Meeting up with fellow phonetician Hugh Pickering (Minal Patel) Higgins arrogantly bets his friend he can transform any girl so she can pass in high society. Flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Molly Lynch) hears this and takes him up on the challenge.

Eliza’s guttural squawking soon has the edges rounded off and she gradually discovers classiness.

An astonishingly talented cast incudes the awesome Cathy Tyson as Mrs Higgins, Djavan van de Fliert’s vocals as Freddie are amazing and the comic timing of TV regular Steve Furst lift this production sky-wards. Molly Lynch makes a perfect Eliza as she switches effortlessly from streetwise urchin earning pennies in Covent Garden to puncturing the pomposity of high society.

The very first wow moment comes when the set for the interior of Professor Higgins’ house swings across the stage. It is staggering and all praise must go to designer Michael Taylor. It folds in and out to display two staircases which the cast make full use of. But then it pivots back round and it is the dirty brickwork of Covent Garden.

Taylor is also responsible for costuming the production and while the urchin-like ensemble are straight out of Oliver it is in the society scenes that he really comes into his own. In the Ascot racing scene he has captured the iconic Dior look of the film.

When it comes to the vocal talents of the cast huge praise has to go to Molly Lynch’s Eliza and, as mentioned above, de Fliert’s Freddie also warrants mention. However, for sheer vocal dexterity Seadon-Young’s Henry Higgins takes some beating as he storms through songs like Why Can’t The English and the iconic The Rain In Spain.

All of this is superbly backed up by amazing the choreography of Joanna Goodwin (unsurprisingly known recently for Curve productions of Billy Elliot and Sunset Boulevard)

I could go on praising this production but I have run out of superlatives so it is enough to say grab a ticket if you can and get down to Curve before 4^th January for a gloriously uplifting piece of musical theatre.

Pics by Marc Brenner

www.curveonline.co.uk

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 

Sheila's Island

 

Review by Paul Towers, 11/11/24

Sheila’s Island by Tim Firth

Directed by Jane Towers

Produced by Leicester Drama Society (LDS)

At The Little Theatre until Saturday 16^th November

We have all heard of the shenanigans that go on when a group of lads embark on a weekend away. But what about if a group of girls enrol on a team-building excursion?

Tim Firth (Calendar Girls) has given us a funny, poignant story of four ladies who are stuck on a fog bound island in the Lake District. Supposedly on a team-building outward-bound weekend it soon descends into Lord-Of-The-Flies country as the various cracks appear in the group dynamic.

Sheila (Alfi Levy) is supposed to be the team leader but is pretty ineffectual, relying, as she does, on her cryptic crossword skills to overthink the group’s instructions. Julie (Kat Seddon) has the largest rucksack filled, Mary Poppins-like, with an array of essential survival supplies (or so the man in the shop assured her). Denise (Mary Delahunty) is the group pessimist. In her eyes everything that can go wrong will go wrong and, to be fair, with Sheila in charge, it has. Fay (Kathryn Lenthall) is struggling with her mental health and some of the group worry she may do something stupid. Her way of coping is to embrace her new found love of God.

As the play opens the four women drag themselves, wet and weary, out of the sea and dry off. Immediately tensions start to show as Sheila is rightly blamed for their being lost and fog bound. From then on it is a case of trying get by with the meagre supplies they have rescued from the lake.

The set by Steph Nicholls expertly depicts the water’s edge and trees.

Sheila’s Island is at The Little Theatre until Saturday 16^th November

 

Pics: Jenny Harding

https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/ 

Gaslight

 

Review by Paul Towers, 21/10/24

Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton

Directed by John Ghent

Produced by Leicester Drama Society

At The Little Theatre until Saturday 26^th October

gaslighting

[ gas-lahy-ting ]

noun

1.     the use of psychological manipulation to undermine a person’s faith in their own judgment, memory, or sanity:

Just in time for Hallowe’en this Victorian chiller is at The Little Theatre for a week.

If you thought that coercive controlling behaviour was a modern phenomenon then this 100 year old psychological tale will change your mind.

Set in 1880’s London, a time of fogs and gas lighting, the devastating effects of a husband’s deviousness is superbly played out in a Victorian drawing room. Bella (Joy Brankin-Frisby) is superb as the wife convinced she is going mad like her late mother. She is married to Jack Manningham (John Moulding) menacingly effective as the husband using every trick in the book to drive her insane. He hides things from his increasingly hysterical spouse and accuses her of losing them.

The title of the play comes from the fact that the domestic gas supply is so weak that when lamps are lit in one part of the house everywhere is dimmed. Bella has noticed that some time before her husband returns from his mysterious daily disappearances the lights dim. Minutes after they brighten again, he returns.

It isn’t until the unexpected arrival on her doorstep of Rough (Paul Large), an ex-policeman, do Bella and he start to unravel the mystery. Add into this toxic household a couple of maids. Elderly Elizabeth (Katy Weaver) is well aware of how nasty her Master is but as a lowly housemaid feels there is little she can do. Flighty young Nancy (Chloe Drury) has her own agenda while she cosies up to her sadistic employer.

It isn’t until two policemen (Jon Worthy & Kaz Vafaie) are summoned that justice is finally done.

A magnificent set by Phil Newman and atmospheric lighting by Jeremy Thompson bring this spooky drama to life.

Gaslight is at The Little Theatre until Saturday 26^th  October

Pics: Poyner + Mee

https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/

https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/