ALADDIN

ALADDIN

Trinity Methodist Music and Drama

05.01.17

A new recruit to the ranks of community panto.
Tony Brett's production turns out to be a traditional, vintage romp through the familiar story. Though the music includes Buble and Beyonce as well as Flanagan and Allen. There's a nod to the Disney show, as well. And of course a generous helping of songs from the shows: Flower Drum Song, Grease, Annie Get Your Gun, Mary Poppins and more ...
There's a great ghost, UV skeletons, a shrinking Wishee and a custard pie. Not to mention a splendid Sand Dance [Wilson Keppell and Betty style] and an impressive production number to Siegfried Line. Cultural references range from policemen on point duty to Pokemon Go.
The settings are simple, with a backcloth which looks as if it's been too often to Twanky's laundry. But the pyrotechnics look good, as do the costumes, with a magnificent walkdown outfit for the Dame.
She's nicely played by Howard Brooks, with George Robey eyebrows and a pleasant baritone. Emma Byatt makes a fine principal boy; her Princess – more fabulous frocks – beautifully sung by Charlotte Reid. Best make-up goes to Paul Osborne's evil Abanazer; Neil Tuttlebury's Emperor is a sadist to rival the Mikado, Alison O'Malley brings an attractive innocence to the mute mime So-Shi. And Alex Wilson works hard as Wishee Washee, forever afraid someone will try to pinch his Pikachu.
Sue Edwards is the MD at the keyboard, with Mark Edwards on the hi-tech drum kit.
It's back to G&S for Trinity's Civic show in May; following their inventive Pirates of 2015, we're promised a fresh look at Trial by Jury and HMS Pinafore, though Music Director Gerald Hindes assures us that Sullivan's music will be heard as the composer intended.



production photograph by Val Scott

ALADDIN

ALADDIN
A Made in Colchester Production at the Mercury Theatre
06.12.2015

for The Reviews Hub

You'll believe a mat can fly …

Aladdin's magic carpet ride was just one of many delights in this carefully crafted panto, a near-perfect cocktail of glamour, silliness and fairy-tale romance.
Under the green-eyed gaze of the dragons rampant either side of the stage, the book, by Fine Time Fontayne and director Daniel Buckroyd, leads us through the timeless tale, allowing space for big numbers, classic routines and, most important, that special rapport that the best panto performances have with the punters.
And here we have Colchester favourites Ignatius Anthony and Dale Superville, giving us, respectively a suavely evil Abanazar and a silly, sunny Wishee Washee. Both seem effortlessly to elicit an enthusiastically noisy reception from the youngsters. Working the slow Sunday matinée crowd, with grumpy banter and outrageous ad-libs, Antony Stuart-Hicks' Twanky is a dame to die for. Singing and dancing in the production numbers, hilariously handling his “sons”, and opening his heart to the front stalls. Ruby, 9, is last on today's birthday list. “Isn't this the ultimate embarrassment,” quips the widow, “Welcome to life!”.
Glenn Adamson is a cool, boy-band Aladdin, hoofing very deftly in the opening number; he even manages to bring off the sentimental Thinking Out Loud duet, complete with pas-de-deux from ensemble dancers Colin Burnicle and Gracie Lai. His lovely Jasmine, the paper bag princess who gets a girl power moment defeating Abanazar, is Sarah Moss. Tim Freeman plays the impecunious Emperor Eric Wonton; Simon Pontin and Laura Curnick are kept busy doubling as Ping and Pong, the comedy policemen, and the bearded Genie and Siri – nod to Apple's knowledge navigator – the Slave of the Ring.
The music is carefully chosen, and cleverly reworked by MD Richard Reeday to suit the panto plot. Yes, we get this year's must-have number, Uptown Funk, but also, for the older audience, Billy Joel's original Uptown Girl. Jessie J's Bang Bang follows hard on the heels of Sullivan's Three Little Maids. And the singalong – vamp till ready, Uncle Richard – is Kung Fu Fighting.
In the Frozen Himalayas [rhymes with Walton-on-the Naze] Widow Twankey, dressed inappropriately a la Carmen Miranda, does a Copacabana spoof; this is also the setting for the Yeti Ghost Routine, which this show has the confidence to do properly and in full, despite the Dame's disclaimer - “I hate this scene ...”
The laundry – featuring the patent Twankomatic with its soft soap, mangle and steam press – gets a spontaneous “Wow!” from the stalls, and the split-screen cave, the palace perspective and the colourful market work well, too. 
The Junior Chorus is given plenty to do, and rises marvellously to the challenge of some super choreography [Charlie Morgan], sporting yellow Marigolds for Walks Like Rihanna.
All too soon, the wedding walk-down and a heartfelt All I Want For Christmas Is You.
The Mercury can feel justly proud of its Made In Colchester pantomime – one of our three wishes has to be for more of the same in 2016.

production photograph: Mike Kwasniak

ALADDIN

ALADDIN

One From The Heart at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

05.12.2015

for The Reviews Hub

Simon Aylin's snappy Aladdin begins with a prologue set in the Stygian super-villain's lair – the dastardly Abanazar appearing on his throne in a puff of smoke, supported by a team of black-clad avian minions from the excellent juvenile chorus.

After that it's a more or less faithful romp through the familiar plot, with many pantomime traditions honoured: the mangle gag, and Wishee shrunk in the wash. And because every panto needs an animal, an adorable elephant for Fake Your Way To The Top. More laughs, more mess, and more awful puns, would not have come amiss, with maybe a little less music.

A powerful soundtrack from MD Tom Curran and his three-piece band, with a gloriously varied musical mix. Olly Murs, The Addams Family, Jekyll and Hyde, Dreamgirls (twice), Hairspray, Memphis and Lady Gaga among the contributors. A lovely Mambo, The Macarena for the Ghost Routine, the ubiquitous Uptown Funk – featuring this year at Hammersmith and Hackney amongst dozens of others – and a well-received revival of that Gang Show staple If I Were Not Upon The Stage; shame that four performers had to cope with seven choruses, though.

Fizzing dance routines (Damian Czarnecki) from the principals and the ensemble – students at Laine Theatre Arts – Build Me Up Buttercup, for instance, or the Born This Way pre-nuptial entertainment.

And great performances from Millie O'Connell as the lithe, effervescent Slave of the Ring, and Shaun Chambers as a nerdy, beardy Abanazar. The widowed washerwoman is given a saucy persona by Tim McArthur, with his full frocks and neatly buttoned boots. Carried on horizontal at his first entrance, which makes a change. David Tarkenter gives a fine actor-laddie Emperor, and Neal Wright, back by popular demand, is a lovely cuddly Genie of the Lamp. No principal boy here, but a somewhat laddish Aladdin (Liam Ross-Mills, channelling Essex boy Jamie Oliver), not perhaps sufficiently distinct from his brother Wishee Washee, enthusiastically played by Samuel Parker. His princess is a striking Gabriela Gregorian.

The sets look a little old-fashioned, but there is an impressive magical carpet, and a beautifully animated digital front cloth.

A loud, lively panto, which delighted the Brentwood Beavers and the rest of the packed audience when we saw it, and provided a few embarrassing moments for Dean and Steve, mercilessly targeted by Twankey and Wishee.

ALADDIN

ALADDIN
at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch
30.11.2015

for The Reviews Hub

Here be dragons …

Mark Walters' fairy-tale designs for this year's panto at the Queen's are charmingly oriental, with dragons round the proscenium, on the cloths and even projected onto the auditorium carpet and the walls - and noisily invading the foyer on opening night. Lovely ruins in the Tibetan land of ice, a gorgeous backdrop of a lake with junks, and a picture-book market-place in Old Peking.
Nicholas Pegg's take on the tale of Aladdin and his lamp is a fast-moving family show – there's even a number celebrating family values, though maybe the Twankeys are not the best example. There's lots of throwaway humour, some of it filthy, though most of it is clever and slightly off-the-wall. The Vizier's titles for the Emperor, for instance, are a splendid running gag – the sesame substitutes and the TfL Lions too - and there are passing references to Tinder, Star Wars and the Emperor's new clothes, as well as an up-to-the minute dig at Olly Murs. For the record, on press night the Sainsbury's gag went rather better than the smut.
The best pantomime performers forge a bond of affectionate complicity with their audience, and know exactly when to serve the story and the style, and when to send them up.
Sam Pay's Abanazar succeeds brilliantly here, pure evil with his big red book, slickly subverting the script but raising deafening boos from the youngsters in the audience. Fred Broom is a wicked Widow Twankey, wearing her fantastical frocks – Willow Pattern, rotary drier, Pagoda, pink and lilac Frozen – with aplomb. The classic twin sisters routine is perfectly done. Matthew Quinn works his socks off as Wishee Washee, Naomi Bullock slaps her thigh in the title role and Callum Hughes' Emperor of all China is a charming old buffer. Mixed doubles from Rachel Nottingham as the shy feminist Jasmine and a soap-addicted Slave of the Ring, and Thomas Sutcliffe as a lisping Vizier and a straight classical Genie of the Lamp. A great guest appearance from ASMs Rhyan Eldon-Davis and Joe Watch as the Abdominal Showman.
Carol Sloman's original songs are lively and tuneful – a nice old-fashioned duet for Twankey and the Emperor, and for the youngsters [three teams of eight on this show] a nicely choreographed Our Chinese Garden to open Act Two. The kids also got to be mini-me Genies, tiny Abanazars and the comedy cops.
The effects are a little tame, though the carpet flies well, and the lighting is often spectacular.
Something for everyone in a packed two hours – crisps and sweets for the cubs in the stalls, a ker-ching moment for the sponsors, a traditional story clearly told, a front-cloth song for all ages, a proper staircase for the wedding walk-down and a moral message before the title cloth falls.
The Queen's Resident Company is directed by Matt Devitt, with choreography by Donna Berlin and musical direction by Dan de Cruz.

production photograph by Mark Sepple

ALADDIN

ALADDIN

Pantoloons at the Braintree Arts Theatre

18.01.14

“Let's go home now, Olivia ...”

Well it was 4.45, and Olivia and her friends had several toddlers in tow.

What with a late start and the raffle, this panto ran close to three hours, a long time for tinies, even in the comparative comfort of Braintree Arts Theatre.

But young and old who stayed to the end enjoyed an old-fashioned community pantomime from this passionate company who've just celebrated thirty years on the boards.

For this, their fourth Aladdin, they've gone back to the original story, though there are of course topical quips, anachronisms and a stereotypical Scotsman, his impenetrable accent moderated by an ingenious Jock-ometer.

This character is beautifully played by Phil Osborn, founder member of the group, who's also written and directed the show, and painted the colourful set [a lovely giant clothes horse with fluorescent washing].

His script is studded with witty touches: the baddie, masquerading as Uncle Erasmus, is Graham Abanazer, with his wife Barbara, the Genies are streetwise, the Emperor [Liam Lawless] is named Penn Kwin.

Dan Winnington is an imposing ice-cream-loving evil genius [“Wicked Abanazer to you”] - his finest hour comes with the punning prop lamps; his terms of endearment for Mrs Abanazer [Jo Speed], though varied and inventive, need selling harder. Michelle Jesse is in the Ring, the East-Endery geezer Genie of the Lamp is Graeme Aldred.

Not one but two double acts – policemen Wiff and Waff [Nycckie Lowden and Emily Smith] and the likeable Hansel-and-Gretelish Hanky and Panky of Sue Stedman and Hana Younger.

Craig Douglas makes a cheeky, laddish Widow Twanky, gloriously bejazzled in purple – his Wishee Washee is Nic Hammond.

The two young lovers are fetchingly played by Rebecca Tyler and Clare Ryan. Clare manages to be both sexily elegant and a convincingly sulky, slothful teen – an ideal Principal Boy. Their Can't Buy Me Love duet, and their shared sandwich, a highlight of the show.

Loads of good musical ideas, from the bright opening chorus to the final Walk Down. The Marketplace number is excellent, although, as often, the unmiked chorus struggle to be heard over The Pitz [the three-piece band under MD Matthew Speed]. Some smart choreography, too [Emma Loring], especially the dancing finger lights.

Plenty of pyrotechnics, kiddie karaoke, hisses, boos and aahs, ice cream and cupcakes at half-time. But maybe a little too generous with the dialogue and the songs – most professional pantos are much shorter nowadays ...

ALADDIN

ALADDIN

at the Broadway, Barking

07.12.11

for Remote Goat

In Barking's pop-up Broadway, now scandalously threatened with closure, local panto for local people, but with admirable style and gloss.

The small company is augmented and enhanced by some very talented youngsters, who are given plenty to do in Karena Johnson's lively production. Singing, dancing, and for three of them, major roles and a fair share of the best lines: a crazy chase through the auditorium for the two comedy policemen, and a mischievous, eager Genie of the Ring, who even gets to share the magic carpet ride.

The kids in the audience are well served, too, lighting up the place with their glowing cutlasses. They are thrown sweets – once a given in any panto, but this is the only time I've seen it this season – and enjoy script [Marc Day] and delivery very much pitched at their level. But lots of nostalgia for the oldies: "Together", "Chuchi Face", H-A-P-P-Y for the Mummy ghost routine, not to mention loads of local references and antiquated gags.

From Ashley J's in-flight introduction it is clear that here is a panto performer who knows how to interact with his audience – he makes a very likeable Wishee-Washee [and choreographed the dance routines]. His brother Aladdin – whose Dagbad has very obvious East End roots – is Michael Sewell. The lovely Princess Jasmine is played as a strong young woman, and beautifully sung, by Roxanne Douro.

Hugh Osborne's Emperor sounds just like the Englishman abroad his name suggests, while Benedict Martin is the power-hungry Abanazer, fighting to be heard over the jeers and boos from the audience, and doing a great job with his "Evil" front cloth song.

Marcus Powell is a lovely Widow Twankey, bouncy, giggly with more than a hint of Frankie Howerd; wonderful dresses, of course, including bubble baubles and magnificent twin lamps.

While the staging is inevitably simple – the canvas cave entrance less than impressive – there are lots of lovely touches, my favourite the surreal perambulator sound of marching feet.

Phil Gostelow's music includes a great sing-along Bruno Mars Lazy Song, and a Glee finale – "Don't Stop Believin'" a handy mantra for the beleaguered Broadway to take into 2012 ...

ALADDIN

One From The Heart at the Civic Theatre, Chelmsford

19.12.10

A traditional family pantomime – whatever that means. No smut, no soap-stars. Custard pies and chorus boys – a dying breed these days. A mangle, good and evil right and sinister, a dame, but no principal boy – another dying breed. And plenty of well-worn wit: 1954 was quoted on stage – that was I think the year of my first trip to professional panto, and I'm not arguing.

I'd heard great things about their magic carpet, and it lived up to the hype, with Chris Carswell’s East End Aladdin, lit by the on-board light source, balancing and singing One Moment in Time as the rug pitched and swayed through the darkness.

Simon Aylin's script also deserves a gong for the most tortuous topical/local gag – rhyming Nick Clegg with Ivory Peg.

Star of the show for us was Harry Morrison's chunky Genie, giving his all in Rhythm of Life. Good work too from Nathan Guy's little boy Wishee, Natasha Jayetileke's sultry Jasmine and Michael Cantwell's Abanazer, with his “bad guy facial hair”. A gruff, gritty Dame from Richard Earl - “You can talk to me, you know, I'm not a DVD ...” - who lit up the stage as soon as he strutted on.

Lots of good music – standards, show tunes, including Good Morning Zanzibar and Mummy Mia – the orient, in this new script, stretching from “Ancient Arabia” to Egypt for an enhanced interactive ghost routine. The MD in the pit was Ben Kennedy; I enjoyed his megamix finale, encouraging the youngsters to get on down [St Anne's, Trinity Road, Scallywags and Kiddicaru were in the stalls with us], and the lifetime's worth of singalongs - from Bob the Builder to Go Compare – in one glorious medley. Not to mention a seriously silly Twelve Days of Christmas, with custard pies and rubber chickens.

Best Civic panto for a while, I'm told, and it was certainly a hit with the youngsters, who scrambled for sweets and squealed as they were squirted in the water battle. But it did lack the angle, the edge, which would have made it memorable for me ...

ALADDIN
Queen's Theatre Hornchurch
06.12.10
Cut to the Chase company


for The Public Reviews
photograph by Nobby Clark


Fresh as the paint on old Peking, Bob Carlton's fun-packed family panto was chock-full of charm and chutzpah; even by the third performance it looked slick and secure, with all the routines well-oiled. Impressively, this is an entirely home-made, in-house production, with the actor-musicians of Cut to the Chase, children from local schools, and costumes and sets created over the year by their own wardrobe, workshop, scenic art and stage management departments.


Nicholas Pegg's brand new book [his twelfth for the Queen's] ticked all the boxes, but there was style, too, with sophisticated wordplay for those quick enough to catch it. The “sesame” substitutes just one example. Carol Sloman's music covered all the panto genres, from sloppy romance through sing-along nonsense to the Formby tribute Families Are Fun, with Wishee on his little ukulele.


No names or nonentities here, just the incredibly versatile resident company, acting, singing and playing in the pit, obviously enjoying their annual treat in pantoland. None more than classy “classical actor” Stuart Organ, relishing every syllable of the lively, literate script as Abanazer, popping up stage left in a cloud of smoke. I loved Natasha Moore as the slave of the ring, having a Barking moment before she realised where she was. Coalition cuts to thank, perhaps, that she was also a radiant Princess Jasmine. An even more demanding double whammy from Matthew Quinn, as a gleeful Vizier and a cuddly Yeti – excellent work in both. Steve Simmonds was amusing as a somewhat jaded Genie of the Lamp, and Tom Jude worked well with Quinn as the Emperor. The “infernal boy” who woos his daughter was the clean-cut Oliver Seymour-Marsh, who sang superbly I thought. Joe West worked his socks off as Wishee-Washee, encouraging the audience [who were often several steps ahead of him], throwing himself enthusiastically into all that physical stuff; his mother, hardly old enough to be widowed, surely, was company regular Simon Jessop's Twankey, with a nice line in caustic throwaways and of course some gorgeous outfits – the Willow Pattern, the washing-line titfer.


The Young Company – one of three teams of eight children – brought energy and enthusiasm to the staging, and had some of the best choreography [Donna Berlin], dressed as mini-me genies for the pyrotechnic Act One finale, and making oysters from fans, pearls from fireflies, in the Palace Garden.


And “hours of humiliation” for random punter Michael from Ilford, who made the mistake of sitting in the front row ...


Mark Walters' designs sparkled, like pages from a pop-up book; the wall of China disappearing into the distance “like the tail of a dragon”, and a lovely cave.


There were novelties – an inventive carpet ride, the messy scene featuring an animated noodle bar rather than the laundry – but this panto did not neglect tradition [Hearts and Flowers, New Lamps for Old] or the all-important routine and repetition [watering the plants]. We should not forget that these hoary old gags are cutting edge comedy for the five-year-old in the row in front … “No, I always walk like this … Suit yourself, Michael !”

ALADDIN

Mercury Theatre Company

Mercury Theatre, Colchester

04 December 2010

for The Public Reviews

“It's off the advert !” Yes, indeed – Dimples the Meerkat, second only to Churchill the dog on this year's panto circuit, transported from Siberia to Old Shalimar for the Mercury's cheerful, colourful panto, written and directed by Janice Dunn.

And judging by the audience reaction, a popular choice, upstaging many of the hard-working Mercury company.

Wishee Washee – causing chaos in the laundry – was Dale Superville, with a cheeky grin and an engaging persona. His formidable mother, Widow Twankey, was a slightly cynical Tim Treslove, who was at his best in the tribute snatches randomly dropped into the plot, and the neat Little Chu Chi Face duet with Roger Delves-Broughton's lovely bumbling Emperor.

The young lovers were Jai Vethamony – his first ever panto - as a likeable Aladdin, and Elizabeth Brown as the princess Jasmine.

It was a clever, if confusing, touch to have the shape-shifting genie of the lamp played by three actors, including the excellent Ignatius Anthony, who was also Abu, our story-teller.

Product placement puppets apart, the star of the show for us was David Tarkenter, who enjoyed his role as baddie Abanazer, and was loudly booed even in disguise.

MD Graeme Du Fresne did his best with some so-so songs and a mixed ability cast, but Charlie Morgan's choreography was a delight, with the company augmented by eight talented youngsters. The Act One finale – Don't Stop Me Now – was an especial success, with great costumes, and a flying carpet.

The whole show looked splendid, with oriental doorways, an impressive split-level cave, laundry in the foyer and glitter everywhere. And Tim had some formidable frocks, including a front-loader apron and a pvc number with designer detergent branding.

But though the pace was generally commendably slick, this Aladdin seemed uncertain how traditional it wanted to be: we had a gorgeous walk-down [after an interminable audience song] a sprinkling of topical and local references – nice to spot Jumbo among the landmarks glimpsed from the carpet ride – and a surreal hunting sequence. But loads of jokes went unnoticed by the windmill-waving audience, and many half-remembered opportunities were missed. Widdecombe the camel was under-used, there was a great red mangle, but no flat Wishee, and his “Swishy” banter was left to wither. Star Wars, and the martial arts slo-mo, left us similarly unsatisfied.

But there were plenty of happy moments: the Dragon Dance, the “Bonkers” running gag, the iPad for the birthday names, and the quick-fire intro to a perfectly timed Ghost routine.

“It's behind you ! - Who ya gonna call ?”

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

ALADDIN

at the New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich

25.01.09

A wok 'n' [spring] roll panto ?

Great ! But can we afford it ?

Well, we'd need a Twankey, of course. Aladdin himself, Abenazar, Genie of the Lamp, Wishee and Washee, the Beijing broker's men … [ only one ? doubling pantomime dragon with Aladdin ] A rocking band, backing singers …

If you've been amongst the happy punters at the Wolsey, you'll know how the riddle was solved.

Recession panto par excellence, with a multi-talented company of ten scarcely ever off stage.

Like the People's Republic of China, this was a democratic show.

Francesca Loren's agile monkey, for example, also played sax, trombone and an impressive trumpet in the old Orbison number [shades on, everyone] In Dreams.

And Julian Harries' disgraceful Dame also played keyboard – the ingenious live sound effects were also done on the synth.

Shirley Darroch's Genie had some of the best vocal moments. The most effective number dramatically was Close to You, with an outrageous vocal quartet in the wings.

Just occasionally I might have wished for more panto [there were few routines, and no laundry] and less music. But director Peter Rowe, who co-wrote this piece back last century, and MD Ben Goddard kept the forces mobilized from warm-up to instrumental encore. And Foxton's set, cleverly changing from street to palace, with lanterns, dragons and an old joke all of its own, was superb.