Circo-Pantus
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
by Alan McHugh, additional material by Phil Walker
Crossroads Pantomimes at Richmond Theatre until 31st December
Review by Thea Diamond
Richmond Theatre is one of the most atmospheric venues for the annual outing to the pantomime – one of the oldest surviving Frank Matcham theatres, set on Richmond Green with surrounding Duke Street and Parkside beautifully adorned with twinkling seasonal lights. All that was needed to complete this magical Christmas card scene was a sprinkling of frost and carol singers on the steps (both of which we were lucky enough to be treated to on this rather freezing cold evening).
However, this is where tradition ends. If this is your first visit to the pantomime, let me tell you, this Goldilocks and the Three Bears is not your typical panto – there’s no fairy tale plot, no audience sing-along action songs nor an invitation for youngsters to join the fun on stage. This is a variety show extravaganza, with spectacular circus acts to completely blow you away with the sheer talent on display. What it lacks in well-known song adaptations and smutty topical innuendoes, it more than makes up for in the scale and quality of the production.
Read more…Dexterous Delights
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, adapted by Beth Flintoff
Reading Rep company at Reading Rep Theatre, Reading until 31st December
Review by Sam Martin
Beth Flintoff’s adaptation of the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol is an ideal opportunity to get into the festive spirit. A warm welcome of mulled wine and a fun selfie station with an array of period hats creates a sense of anticipation and familiarity with this theatrical tradition. Flintoff provides a new spin on the classic tale, setting the narrative in Reading itself, with Huntley and Palmers’ biscuit factory the place of Scrooge’s business empire. This is a clever and endearing variation, pulling on the local audience’s knowledge of the legacy of Huntley and Palmers and the surrounding areas of Reading.
Read more…Game for a Laugh
Guardians of the Pantoverse
by Daniel Wain, lyrics adapted by Nigel Cole and Lizzie Lattimore
Teddington Theatre Club at Hampton Hill Theatre until 11th December
Review by Thea Diamond
With Christmas fast approaching, what better way to start the season with a visit to Hampton Hill Theatre to be immersed not only into the world of panto, but into the world of gaming. Daniel Wain’s original piece written especially for this production and directed by Nigel Cole, not only incorporates all aspects of this best loved festive tradition (the cheering and booing for our heroes and villains, the cross dressing, and plentiful audience participation and joining in with action songs), but the tale has also been cleverly based in the world of video games, also incorporating many gaming genres, as well as a mixture of songs old and new, and viral internet videos and memes.
Read more…Take a Gander
Mother Goose
by Will Brenton
Hackney Empire Productions at the Hackney Empire until 31st December
Review by Quentin Weiver
When music hall impresario, Oswald Stoll commissioned the design of the Hackney Empire Palace, he wanted the most beautiful theatre in the world, a theatre to open the new Twentieth Century as the best ever, so he turned to the incomparable architect Frank Matcham. Notwithstanding the London Coliseum or Richmond Theatre, other Matcham masterpieces, it remains an impeccable example of its kind. Opened in 1901, it rapidly gained fame as a music hall, attracting well-known names such as Charlie Chaplin or Stan Laurel.
Pantomime had recently become a staple of the music hall, and pantomime had widened its appeal by featuring popular music hall stars. But Stoll wanted the best pantomime performers, and for the Hackney Empire’s first panto in 1902 he signed up Dan Leno, the Dame of Drury Lane who had been wowing Christmas panto audiences there since 1888.
Read more…Uninhibited Gusto
Cinderella
by Alan P Frayn
Network Theatre Company at Network Theatre, Waterloo until 4th December
Review by Nick Swyft
Tucked in down in the service area under Waterloo station is the little gem that is Network Theatre. This is the place to go for a refreshing and very welcome return to ‘Traditional Pantomime’. It seems that in recent years, panto has been swamped with various modern agenda and has suffered as a result. Cinderella brings us back to the kind of uproarious uninhibited ‘gender bending’ entertainment that predates Ru Paul by hundreds of years. Even Dandini’s (Gabriela Papievyte) thigh slapping was back! The audience loved it.
Read more…Absorbing and Powerful
12:37
by Julia Pascal
Pascal Theatre Company at the Finborough Theatre, Earl’s Court until 21st December
Review by Harry Zimmerman
It was at 12.37 pm on 22nd July 1946 that the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed. Ninety-one people were killed, and forty-six wounded. The bombing was carried out by right wing Zionists, targeting the headquarters of the British forces in Palestine.
This event is the culmination of a perfectly crafted and gripping narrative that intertwines the 20th century nationalist struggles of Irish and Jewish nationalism with a visceral love story. The result is an absorbing and powerful piece of theatre.
Read more…Fun-Filled Flamboyance
Legally Blonde, the Musical Jr.
music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, book by Heather Hach, based on the novel by Amanda Brown
Dramacube at the Esher Theatre until 29th November, then tours to 21st December
Review by Millie Stephens
Millie Stephens is one of our younger reviewers. Millie trained with the Rose Theatre, Kingston.
Legally Blonde, the Musical Jr was a fun and vibrant performance by Dramacube’s teenage Orange Cast at the newly refurbished Esher Theatre. It is a story of friendship, sorority, and the legal world, with the classic social message of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’.
Read more…A Lion, a Witch, and a Spectacular Wardrobe
The Wizard of Oz
by Alfred Bradley adapted from the novel by L Frank Baum,
BCP at the Kitson Hall, Barnes until 3rd December
Review by Andrew Lawston
Even rail disruption and the prospect of an England vs Wales football match can’t dampen the spirits of Barnes Community Players as they launch their winter show, a joyful stage adaptation of L Frank Baum’s classic The Wizard of Oz, directed with pace and invention by Jane Gough. It’s important to stress from the outset that there are no songs, and few of the iconic lines of dialogue that you might be expecting, but there are buckets of charm and magic to go around.
Kitson Hall’s proscenium arch is held back for key scenes as the audience sit around a thrust stage. From the outset this creates an interesting tension, as Dorothy’s “real world” family are depicted on the main stage, while most of the Oz scenes are played out down at floor-level, encouraging the audience’s greater complicity with the fantastical world in which Dorothy finds herself.
Read more…Taster Menu
Reboot Festival 2022
Week Three
Barons Court Theatre until 3rd December
Review by Claire Alexander
Watching six plays in one evening is a little like getting a taster menu at a restaurant. You know which dishes you would like more of, which are perfectly portioned and which perhaps you would not have chosen. Happily, all of the plays I saw at the Baron’s Court theatre last night fell into the former two categories and I found myself wondering which of the short snapshots I saw, I would like to see in a longer version.
It’s quite a challenge in an evening – six plays – and I applaud the Baron’s Court Theatre for this concept and making it work so successfully. This is the third and final week of the Reboot Festival and will have given eighteen new and emerging writers an opportunity to showcase their work. The plays were short and snappy, perhaps only fifteen minutes at most, and thus the evening did not fall into the trap of being overlong and kept the audience on their toes!
Read more…Jack and the Broadway Stars!
Jack and the Beanstalk
by Jude Christian and Sonia Jalaly
Lyric Theatre Productions at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith until 7th January
Review by Viola Selby
In my opinion, to make a pantomime perfect, one must first add a good dollop of glitter, a generous helping of goofy gags and finally but most importantly a gigantic amount of gleeful energy!
Jack and the Beanstalk has all this and more, with so much colour and sequins (thanks to the creative creations of theatre design studio Good Teeth)! From the off, audience participation is perfected by having us countdown to the start of the show. Then through the whole perfomance, you are made to feel included through all traditional and slightly less known means, be it ‘He’s behind you’ and ‘Oh no it’s not’, to auditioning for “World of …” and getting to cast a spell together to make it snow!
Read more…
Mark Aspen 