THE
LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Chelmsford
Young Generation at the Cramphorn Theatre
27.12.01
Irita
Kutchmy's musical
version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was a good choice for
CYGAMSChristmas show. It involves loads of youngsters, and is a
popular, perennial story. It's been
sold out for weeks.
Purists
will not like the Disneyfied travesty of much of the plot and many of
the characters, but these young actors, directed as ever by Ray
Jeffery, went to enormous lengths to capture the period feel and the
poetry. Generally, though, performers of all ages could usefully have
projected a little more strongly.
On
the opening night we saw the left-hand cast
- of these, I greatly enjoyed Amelia Burns as Susan, and Keeley Allen
as a warm, outgoing Lucy, looking and sounding just right as a feisty
evacuee. Mr Tumnus the faun was neatly personified by Mitchell
Raymond, who delivered his lines with feeling and moved with poise
and grace. The White Witch was not well served by the script, but
Helen Morris gave a strong panto performance, a worthy match for Paul
Synott's majestic
Aslan.
The
production crowded the Cramphorn stage, but the wartime prologue was
effective, and I liked the lamp-post and the snow like fondant icing
over the rocks and trees. And despite the clunky lyrics and the
forgettable tunes, the audience, like the visitors to Narnia, happily
forgot all about the real world for a magical couple of hours.
