SLEEPING
BEAUTY
Cut
to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch
01.12.2014
No
end of fun in Hullabaloonia, the setting for this year's spectacular
Sleeping Beauty.
Nicholas
Pegg's script sticks close to tradition, the jokes and routines are
familiar friends, but it's all done with such style and energy that
everyone, from the tiniest to the most jaded, is royally entertained.
As
we've come to expect, the show is visually stunning - everything designed by Mark Walters: the palace and
the title gauze glitter like an illuminated manuscript – the
sparkling colours echoed in the glowing swords and flashing fans in
the stalls. The frocks, too, are outstanding: not just Nelly's
outrageous creations – a nursemaid's titfer, a rampant squirrel,
Gaga mirrorballs – but the fairies' wings and the king's uniform.
Even the excellent children's chorus get several changes, including
toadstool sprites and purple for the wedding walkdown.
The
set includes a pneumatic red dragon, a lovely revolving turret for
the spindle scene, and a forest of thorns ingeniously sprouting from
nowhere. The bedroom scene, complete with moose, ghost, candlesticks
and chamberpots, is a triumph of physical gags, carefully
orchestrated for maximum comic effect.
The
cast, directed by Matt Devitt, bring enthusiasm, and occasional
in-jokes, to the familiar story. Rachel Dawson makes a charming young
Aurora; Thomas Sutcliffe is her [elegantly dressed] humble kitchen
boy Clutterbuck, a dashing, thigh-slapping hero with dimples and a
Colgate smile. Their love is thwarted by her dad, King Ethelbert the
Unsteady – a fussy, flatulent Fred Broom.
Only
fitting that most of the hard work – warming the audience, dusting
off old gags – should fall to Sam Pay's Silly Billy, a superbly
likeable pantomime performance. And Claire Storey's Carabosse, a
cynical American with a touch of Joan Crawford, makes an excellent
foil for Megan Leigh Mason's pretty, vivacious Primrose.
Simon
Jessop's Dame is bold and brash – much fun is had at the expense of
Brad in row D - “hours of humiliation” for him, the climax his
conducting of the audience in this year's Panto Song – Meghan
Trainor's All About That Bass.
All
the other music is fresh from the pen of MD Carol Sloman; this year's
vocal gems include a quest anthem to end Act One, Fire in My Shoes
for Tom, and a great duet Let's Make Sweet Music for the King and the
Dame.
Like
the music, the costumes and the set are all made in house. That's
what makes the Queen's seasonal offering stand out; it's the Cut to
the Chase company letting their hair down over Christmas, in a show
that is entirely created on site. A local show, for a loyal audience,
but with production values unmatched on the region's repertory
stages.
production photograph by Mark Sepple
