Yet with a hint
of fairy tale magic, some sizzling special effects, colourful costumes and
loads of belly laughs thrown in, it will surely be back before another 100
years is up.
As always, the
comedy moments proved the biggest hits, with cheeky Ben Nickless – back for his
fourth panto at the Theatre Royal – perfectly nailing a routine where his Apple
watch filled in his missing words. Then later on his DVD collection provided
some rather apt (if not altogether safe-for-work) commentary on panto dame Andrew Ryan’s night out with some
poor fella in the front row of the stalls.
A
personal highlight was the traditional staple “If I Were Not Upon This Stage”.
You can’t really beat the tried and tested routines, and this one left tears of
laughter rolling down my cheeks well into the curtain call. Another set-piece,
the pleasant pheasant pluckers, had the cast in stitches too – along with most
of the adults watching, though thankfully this one went over the heads of all
those kids in the crowd.
The lovely
Sherrie Hewson, a local lass of course, provided the glue between the scenes as
Mrs Potts-Temple-Savage, with some traditional audience interaction to help the
fairy story along, although in truth there was already a fair pace to the
action and a good mix of fairy tale, comedy and song.
Benidorm’s
Sherrie, previously a star of Coronation Street, sometimes looked a little
alone on stage when she was chatting with the audience – it would only have
taken a couple of dancers as her escorts to leave her looking less lonely on
what is a very big stage.
We loved the
baddie, Trent Bridge, played by Danny Bayne, already a veteran of musical
theatre and TV entertainment news. Perfectly over-the-top, he took to the stage
with just the right amount of fun to hit the mark as Deadly Nightshade’s
henchman. Deadly herself (Natalie Spriggs) should really have attracted more
boos from the auditorium but had so many lines the audience really needed to
listen to keep up!
Naomi
Slights was a ringer for Disney’s Belle, helped along by some wonderful
wardrobe. Her beau, Ben Richards from Footballers’ Wives and Hollyoaks,
perfectly captured the torment of being the beast. And while the classic dining
room scene came alive thanks to some nifty dance work from the young Theatre
Royal Babes ensemble, my favourites were the dancing jammie dodgers.
If you’ve got
some very young children you might need to hold their hand towards the end of
Act One, when Beast slays the kraken – but not before an amazing piece of
stagecraft brings it terrifyingly to life within inches of the audience’s
noses.
The in the second
act, it’s time to slip the 3D glasses for the haunted Forest, complete with all
its creepy crawlies to give the I’m A Celebrity critters a run for their money.
