MESSIAH COMES TO TOWN

MESSIAH COMES TO TOWN

Broomfield Church and Community Choir

with Sandon School Voices

Broomfield Parish Church

13.12.15

Patrick Appleford's catchy cantata was first heard in 1992. This splendid revival, organized and conducted by Jill Parkin, raised funds for the restoration of the organ in St Mary with St Leonard's, which was packed to capacity for this very special event.

The work – for choir, soloists, narrators and congregation – tells the Nativity story in a series of icons [word pictures from the readers - Dick Petley and Val Vicary] based on the Gospel of Luke.

The choir – specially formed for the occasion – sang the crowd choruses; their Come and See the Baby was a comedy highlight. The audience was encouraged to join, chorale-style, in the four very accessible hymn tunes.

Jonathan Parkin was a commanding Gabriel, Neill Wiltshire the priest Zechariah. Good to See You was a lovely catch-up duet from kinswomen Elizabeth and Mary; Rachel Curren's Elizabeth had a superb solo – Sometimes I Wonder – backed by Val Hougham and the Satin String Quartet. Marvellous to hear Mary sung by the pure young voice of Emma Shorey; her What a Wonder-filled Day was especially fine. Her equally youthful Joseph was Louis Dearmer. Simeon, who welcomes the Messiah to the temple in Jerusalem in the final icon, was sung by Richard Lovewell.

Canon Appleford, who was in the audience to hear his cantata, uses an attractive variety of musical styles to stress the universal relevance of the Christmas story. There's even a nod to that other Messiah, 250 years older, also a notable fund-raiser in its day.

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

Brentwood Theatre Company

12.12.15

Mole, Ratty, Badger and Mr Toad – Kenneth Grahame's immortal characters come to the Brentwood stage for this year's children's entertainment, directed by Ray Howes.

This musical version, book and songs by American Michael Hulett, dates from the early 80s, sitting somewhere between the classic A A Milne adaptation and the NT's Alan Bennett version. The music is attractive – an atmospheric arrangement for Brentwood by MD Andy Prideaux – and the characters charming. There are cute puppet critters, too. The story comes off worst, with the villainous weasels replaced by a random Frenchman. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is shoe-horned in, as is In the Bleak Midwinter, sensitively lit and beautifully sung though it is. 

Excellent work from Francesca Burgoyne as the myopic mole, and Lucy Litchfield as all the humans, including a lovely Scouse washerwoman. Andrew Nance is the dependable Rat, and Stewart Briggs brings gravitas to the gruff Badger. Jackson Pentland's incorrigible Toad - “forever up to something new” - is a delight, unable to keep his hands off his new love the automobile, unable to express apology or remorse at the end.

The performance space is transformed – scene cloths around the auditorium, a clever camouflage webbing tree, the reeds and the willows, and Rat's cosy retreat.

Most of the youngsters in the audience were rapt; panto-style participation kept them involved right to the end.

A fresh look at the river bank from across the pond, and, for younger children, an accessible alternative to bigger, brasher festive entertainments.

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.

MIRROR MIRROR

MIRROR MIRROR

Charles Court Opera at the King's Head Theatre

08.12.15

for Remote Goat

It's not every panto that opens Act Two with a funeral. But that's typical of the alternative take on the genre offered by Charles Court Opera. This is their ninth “boutique pantomime”, decamped for the first time to the King's Head.

John Savournin's script has plenty of weird and wonderful twists – Snow White is the widow of the late great Barry – who flies in for a guest appearance. And following a “cease and desist” from the Disney Corp the dwarfs are carefully re-christened: Gleeful, Crabby and poor old hippy Half Baked, blown to bits just before the interval.

But there's plenty of traditional festive fun – familiar jokes [tainted money, full frontal lobotomy, we were so poor, a warm hand on your entrance …] and even a bake-off food fight escalating from mini buns to cream pies. An eclectic clutch of songs, too, the lyrics re-worked by Savournin's co-writer and MD David Eaton. Reach For The Stars, A Natural Woman and of course Man In The Mirror. Plus a brilliant One Day More mash-up. Since this is an opera company, we're treated to marvellous unplugged voices, too.

Andrea Tweedale opens the show – after a snatch of prog-rock Polovtsian – as the Wicked Queen, Matthew Kellett plays all of the little people, Nichola Jolley is Harry, the valet turned frog footman, Amy J Payne makes a superb Larry, the Black Prince of Pretzel in a prominent purple cod-piece and Savournin himself plays a wonderful dame Snow White, squeezed like Alice into the bijou dwarf house [William Fricker's delightful design]. Their cross-dressed Aretha Franklin duet one of many priceless highlights.

The script is sparing with the topical/local references, though we do get the Garden Bridge, and a couple of Frozen gags. The space is ingeniously used, with the vast mirror concealing the dwarf kitchen and the forest, and the furry critters of the chorus popping up from windowsill and suitcase.

As usual, a brilliant blend of the familiar and the fantastic, “shimmering and glimmering” at the King's Head well into the New Year.