4:20pm Friday 11th December 2009
Why mess with tradition when it delivers timeless family entertainment? From the rhyming couplets in the prologue right through to the glittering walk-down, this self-assured pantomime delivers more than two hours of solid thigh-slapping fun.
The audience is treated to a great mix of confident, experienced performers and fresh new talent. Christopher Lillicrap as Dame Mollycoddle is our genial host. As outrageous as his costumes, his easy humour with the audience and sparky banter with Man Friday (Harvey James) carries the energy throughout the show.
Baddies don’t come much scarier than Matthew Rixon as Davy Jones. Fresh-faced Katie Sheridan as sugary Lucy Locket steals the hearts of the children in the audience. Tracy Shaw as Robinson Crusoe is all that dads could wish for (if only her singing voice matched her fantastic legs) and Jodie Reynolds in the chorus shows a boundless enthusiasm that should carry her far.
Overall the story is a little glib and some of the musical arrangements are a bit lacklustre, but if it’s a classic panto you are after, this one is for you. Spectacular costumes, a confident script, strong performances, plenty of audience participation, saucy contemporary references for grown-ups, loads of “in-gags”
for the locals, a few flashes and bangs and a sprinkling of magic.
You won’t be disappointed – oh no you won’t.
by Anne-Marie Krolick
*Call 01903 206206 to book
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