By Louise
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CROqu2KiSUw
Available until: Sunday 3rd
January, probably 2pm
Dick Whittington is a lovely New Year pantomime treat which
can be enjoyed by adults as well as children. It is a fun and energetic
production with lots of humour and it’s great to see the The Shows Must Go On
series continuing into the New Year. I don’t think Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is
part of it anymore, but it was originally his idea and it has enabled to me see
lots of different productions which I’ve really enjoyed.
Dick Whittington is another to add to the list, but it did worry me a little bit. There are quite a few things in the pantomime which I would have said weren’t the kind of things that should really be in a show for children. This production probably does cross a few boundaries, though I’m sure a lot of people would think it was all right. Perhaps this might be one to watch on your own without the children first? There might also be reviews online which are more detailed than I’m allowed to be, if you are worried.
Though it isn’t really the young
children you have to worry about. My youngest siblings seemed to have no idea
of what was being said or shown onstage. It is the older children you need to
worry about – the ones that are old enough to notice, but too young to stop
themselves from mentioning it.
But I did enjoy the pantomime and
there are some really hilarious scenes which have been very carefully put
together. It is written and directed by Eric Potts, who also plays Sarah the
Cook. A lot of the jokes are quite long, but he seems to know exactly how long
to keep them going and how to make them clear and not too complicated. As
Sarah, he is really funny and loveable.
The music is really good too. There is
a good mixture of pop songs, with some which are very well-known and some which
are less well-known (though perhaps they were well-known when the pantomime was
originally filmed), but they are all great songs and exactly right for the
dramatic moment.
Kerry White has choreographed some
great dance routines for the cast in various styles and there are also some
really clever fight scenes which were choreographed by Karl Magee. The scenes
where Tommy the Cat fights off the rats are especially enjoyable.
Dick is played by Ben Faulks and he
does well to make such a strong impression when he’s surrounded by such big and
exaggerated characters. He is funny and likeable and he grows into a really
good pantomime hero.
Even Alice is a bigger character than
usual as she is played by Ashleigh, who won Britain’s Got Talent in 2012
with her trained dog Pudsey. Pudsey died a few years ago, but he appears as
Alice’s dog in Dick Whittington and he and Ashleigh perform some amazing
tricks together. Ashleigh is lovely as Alice. But Pudsey isn’t the only amazing
animal onstage – Hayley Jane Goold does some lovely feline movement and
acrobatics as Tommy.
It is a very good production for
reality TV. Fairy Bowbells is played by Brenda Edwards, who came fourth in the
second series of the X Factor and now has a successful career onstage
and on TV. She is a lovely fairy with a strong personality, a lot of confidence
and a really beautiful voice. I do like the gentler fairies, but there are lots
of different ways to be a good person and it’s good that more and more
pantomimes are showing this. She has a really lovely dress too.
Lara Denning is brilliant as Queen
Rat. She plays up to the pantomime villain image very well, but she still
manages to give her character depth. And her singing is incredible. Ben
Goodridge is very funny as Alderman Fitzwarren, and Andy Ford is very sweet as
Idle Jack.
It’s a good pantomime, but it did
surprise me quite a lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment