Cinderella - Review

Richmond Theatre, Richmond

*****

Written by Harry Michaels & Alan McHugh

Additional material by Gary Wilmot

Directed by Gary Wilmot

Jak Allen-Anderson, Charlie Stemp & Stephen Guarino

Richmond Theatre’s Cinderella is an absolute fairytale of a pantomime. With countless recent years’ featuring in London’s Palladium panto, Gary Wilmot steps off the stage to direct at Richmond and he helms an absolute blast of a show!

Helen George takes the show’s starriest billing as the story’s enchanting Fairy Godmother, and with a stunning voice to match. The evening quickly launches into a cover of Petula Clark’s Downtown covered instead into Richmond. It's fabulously sung by all the cast and sets the tone for top-notch pantomime humour, brilliantly delivered.

Taking the honours as Buttons is one of the nation’s greatest musical theatre triple-threat performers, the incomparable Charlie Stemp. His is a brilliantly bashful, bungling Buttons, combining physical comedy with bursts of sensational dance numbers. Stemp has also polished his pantomime craft at the Palladium and it shows. Adults and children alike, he holds the audience in the palm of his hand, working the room magnificently. 

Stemp and George have to share the spotlight however with that venerable old fox, Basil Brush as Baron Basil Hardup . With 63 performing years to his name Brush knows his way around a panto and while the kids in the audience may have been confused as to what the role was of this on-stage ventriloquist’s *mouse* (I kid you not, I heard them call Basil a mouse. Oh yes I did!), the grown-ups groaned with laughter at every one of the puppet’s trademark “Boom Booms”.

Did I mention dance? Well it helps that the show is choreographed by the world-class legend that is Stephen Mear. Rarely (maybe even never) are out-of-town pantomimes performed with such classy choreography, as Mear coaxes brilliance not just out of Stemp, but from his entire ensemble. Don’t ask how they fit into the narrative, but the cutest routine of tap-dancing polar bears, drilled to pawed perfection, has to be seen to be believed!

The show’s baddies are wickedly played by Jak Allen-Anderson and Stephen Guarino as the ugly stepsisters, American actor Guarino making his panto debut! The pair are great fun, well-earning the evening’s boos.

Hope Daw, Tom Major and Michael Lin respectively play the relatively straight roles of Cinderella, Prince Charming and Dandini, with all delivering fine work that makes the evening soar.

The second act rolls out the comedy highlights, with a hilarious tongue-twisting scene, matched only by a hilariously and (almost) perfectly co-ordinated take on the physically demanding If I Were Not At Hardup Hall Someone Else I’d Rather Be. Equally, the show’s penultimate number, the little know ABBA gem, Gimme Gimme Gimme A Slipper That Fits Me is another festive gem!

It’s not often that one sees pantomime of top-notch West End quality for the cost of a local ticket. Don’t miss Cinderella at the Richmond theatre. It’s a Christmas cracker! 

Runs until 4th January 2026

Photo credit: Ian Olsson

Dick Whittington - Review

London Palladium

****

Written by Alan McHugh

Music by Gary Hind

Directed by Michael Harrison

Nigel Havers and Charlie Stemp

Following critical and commercial success with last year’s Cinderella, QDOS Entertainment have again invested millions to make Dick Whittington the biggest, boldest and glitziest pantomime on the London circuit with what looks like a degree of overkill, taking a sledgehammer to crush a rat perhaps.

Alan McHugh’s script covers all the bases in the narrative – Dick meets Alice, is charged with ridding London of rats, is falsely charged with theft, goes to Morocco, comes back a hero and is hailed Lord Mayor – but the plot is subsumed to the procession of ‘turns’ hired to do their own excellent thing.  It’s normal in a pantomime to have a comedian, but here there are three – Julian Clary’s campery, Gary Wilmot’s clowning, Paul Zerdin’s ventriloquy – as well as Elaine Paige’s vintage vocals, and street dancer Ashley Banjo and his troupe Diversity who are rather oddly interposed as the Sultan and his bodyguards

This is an extraordinarily boldly costumed show which must have kept lurex manufacturers on overtime for months: at every scene change the 22-strong ensemble appears in a different saturated hue, with elaborate hats and a tonnage of feathers, and there are flashes of theatrical wit like in Fitzwarren’s sweetshop where mannequins pay homage to the ‘Beautiful Girls’ in Follies – or possibly ‘Springtime for Hitler’ – with headdresses and appendages made from giant liquorice allsorts.  

As the Spirit of the Bells Julian Clary's costumes are so elaborate with crystalline accessories they almost hamper his movement - although he doesn't need any excuse not to do choreography because he's nearly as bad at is as he is at singing although he’d defy you to point it out. But he's endlessly, wickedly funny especially at the expense of Elaine Paige who he refers to constantly as E.T.   His bone dry delivery, feigning ennui at the whole process is perfectly timed.

Julian Clary

There are a lot of Dick jokes, and a surprising number of very old jokes which haven't been brushed up for 2017: political topicality is limited to one glancing reference each to Brexit, Trump and Mrs May.  The audience love the old stagers - Nigel Havers is game for a laugh as a sort of self-propelled running gag about wanting a bigger part and being too old for it. Paige is markedly better at the singing than the comedy acting but the parodies of her greatest hits are well written, and Wilmot reminds you that he is every bit as much a musical theatre performer as a comedian when the routine he does naming every tube station to the tune of the can-can is the hit of the show.

But despite being fourth on the bill - and this really is a variety show - the best performer is the ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, British winner of America's Got Talent. Both his routine with his boy dummy Sam, and the words he puts in the mouths of the volunteer kiddies up on stage are terrific, and he's the closest this rather strange confection comes to traditional pantomime.

There is no top over which this production won’t go, whether it’s the rich innuendo in Clary’s script, or the tremendous mechanical effects of an animatronic giant rat, flying London bus or shipwreck where Clary and Charlie Stemp as Dick parody My Heart Will Go On from Titanic while sailing over the heads of the audience.  

At this point any visiting producer with a regional pantomime budget must have lost the will to live.

Ashley Banjo and Diversity

Runs until 14th January 2018

Reviewed by Johnny Fox

Photo credit: Paul Coltas

Peter Pan - Review

New Theatre, Cardiff


****


Adapted from the original story by J.M. Barrie by Jonathan Kiley and Alan McHugh
Directed by Tudor Davies

Matthew Chase and David Hasselhoff

Peter Pan at Cardiff's New Theatre is a fabulously traditional panto. J.M.Barrie's original work has been helpfully truncated (no Mr and Mrs Darling in this gig, though the canine Nana has been reprieved) and the fun and games kick off with the eponymous Peter flying in to the Darling nursery. Pixie dust duly sprinkled, Peter Pan is leading the kids across the skies to Neverland.

Matthew Chase puts in a sweetly assured turn as Peter, though the production is heavy on young women in the featured supporting roles - Emma Prosser's Tinker Bell, Julie Cullen's Wendy, Natalie Winsor's Tiger Lily and last year's The Voice performer Stephanie Webber as Mimi The Mermaid all vie for Peter's attention. The four are a delight in the story's telling, however they make for just a hint of eye-candy sexism in this Cardiff narrative that marks a distinctive contrast from London's more metro-sexual offerings. Likewise, the banter in Wales is nothing stronger than knocking local city rivals Swansea and Newport. There's not a reference to Trump or Brexit to be found and you know what? In this most turbulent of years, it actually makes for a refreshing change to enjoy a politics-free panto. 

Mike Doyle's dame, Mrs Smee, is a polished delight. A local talent, Doyle's masterful comic presence is a saucy treat that keeps just to the right side of acceptability. His gags are as corny as they come but he works the crowd wonderfully - and as a big feller, spoofing himself as a Bond movie title-song singer named Burley Chassis (another local hero, think about it) truly tickled.

Of course a good Peter Pan is all about the star-billed talent playing the dastardly Captain Hook – and to be fair, they don’t come much bigger or more dastardly than David Hasselhoff. 'The Hoff', as he is known, has featured on the UK's pantomime scene for some years now and his involvement is remarkable. He certainly doesn’t need the money - and my word a panto season is hard work too - but for an American (former mega) star to immerse himself in this most quintessentially British of theatrical traditions, along with the self-deprecation that accompanies the part, is just brilliant. Baywatch (referenced by Doyle in a Pamela Anderson, bikini sporting, fat suit) and Knight Rider both get a mention and even if those shows' appeal is to the parents rather than kids in the crowd, Hasselhoff clearly revels in the boos - which briefly turn to cheers as along with Doyle he corpses his way through a tongue twisting routine about pleasant peasant pheasant pluckers.

And as Hasselhoff is flown off stage (spoiler alert) to be fed to the crocodile, he sings My Way. The cheesy, guilty, ridiculous pleasure of the moment is quite simply off the scale!

It's a Qdos Production, so as expected the flying, the scenery and the dance routines are all top notch. Veteran director Tudor Davies helms the affair with a profound understanding of both the material and his provincial audience.

It all makes for fine fabulous family entertainment and if you’re in Cardiff over the festive season, it’s unmissable too!

Runs until 8th January 2017

Photo credit: Brian Tarr