IN our house Christmas isn’t Christmas without local pantomime, writes Caroline Smailes.
As part of our Christmas countdown every year we try to see a local show and clearly we’re all expert in what we expect and demand from our Christmas viewing. We want slapstick, water pistols, in-jokes about football teams, ghosts, smoke machines and custard pies.
We want to be screaming out ‘Oh no it isn’t’ and ‘He’s behind you’ and possibly to partake in a bit of audience participation in the form of a song (with actions).
So this year we (my 3 kiddies aged 6, 10 and 12, husband and I) braved the snow and travelled to New Brighton (on the Wirral) for the Floral Pavilion’s performance of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’.
This year the Floral Pavilion welcomed back Pete Price (Radio City 96.7) as Muddles the Court Jester. We already love Pete, but this year he was outstanding.
His timing was superb and when things did go very wrong (as they often do in pantomime) Pete had everyone laughing and cheering and simply accepting that panto never needs to be perfect.
The local Wirral-references had us locals laughing and cheering (possibly a bit too energetically).
Pete Price led the slapstick, held the water pistol, ended up covered in custard pie, was chased off stage by a ghost and, most importantly, he didn’t take himself seriously.
He stole the show.
Acclaimed actress Pauline Daniels was the evil Wicked Queen and she was super spooky.
I wouldn’t like to cross her on a dark evening in Birkenhead and oh she had me booing and hissing every time she stepped onto the stage (and yes, I did have a ‘BOO’ foam finger).
Merseyside’s favourite dame Roy Brandon was Nurse Glucose, producing lots of laughs and tights-envy from me and my daughter.
His wardrobe changes resulted in rather magnificent frocks and wigs.
Other stars included the UK Eurovision entry from 2007, Scooch, who appeared as the Prince and the Fairy and the Honey Monster was there too (mainly looking for his mummy!).
I think a lot of the audience may have been looking forward to seeing Ken Dodd as the recorded image and voice of the Magic Mirror, but a technical hitch resulted in a ‘no input detected’ message appearing across the mirror.
Pete Price was fabulous making a joke of it and when Ken Dodd’s face did finally appear the audience cheered with delight.
Snow White was played by local actress Kate Mellors. She was perfectly cast, with a pure voice and she was utterly ‘Disney’.
I do think that Adam Curtis (who played the Tax Collector) offered a flawless performance as a baddy.
His character was mesmerizing and totally convincing, he was bad but good but bad (if you know what I mean).
Of course, as I’ve said, things sometimes go wrong in pantomime and when a dwarf fell off the stage and into the orchestra pit, the audience didn’t quite know how to react.
The show went on, as it must, with only six dwarfs and Pete Price (again) controlled the audience by reassuring and being ultra professional.
For me, hearing my husband laughing and the kiddies jumping up and down in their seats pointing at a ghost and screaming out ‘He’s behind you’ and me giggling at corny jokes and ogling camp men in tights and thoroughly enjoying innuendo, well that’s what pantomime is all about.
It’s about embracing a good honest British tradition, it’s about having family fun and (most importantly) it’s about laughing together.
The important stuff:
Tickets to see ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ are £15 adults, £13 concessions and £45 family ticket (ticket for 4 people must contain at least 2 children), available from the box office on 0151 666 0000.
The show is running from Saturday 19 December until Sunday 20 January.
All details can be found on the theatre’s website.
This post is part of the Have A Lovely Time 'Great British Panto' Review. Please consider a Christmas boost for a charity for children with cancer which does fantastic work but has very limited resources. You can do this by visiting our JustGiving page
I have read about the snow white story in the childhood.....but coming to this post was like remembering all those wonderful,beautiful times....
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