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Solomon Davy as The Prince, Tam Ryan as Mickey and Ian Adams as Dame Mary Fortune Picture: Alex Styles Sleeping Beauty Wolverhampton Grand ***** The Grand has pulled another Christmas cracker out of Santa's sack to bring a bit of sparkle and no shortage of fun . . .as well as a bloke in a frock . . . to brighten up the festive season. Sleeping Beauty oozes panto tradition with goodies and baddies, fairies and . . . zombie chickens (is that right?) along with jokes ancient and modern which left the grown-ups all at sixes and sevens…. (does anyone have any idea what this 6s and 7s thing means?). For baddies read Danny Beard whose Carabosse is a glittering, if black and gruesome green can glitter, revelation. The RuPaul's Drag Race star has a delightfully malevolent relationship with the audience, boos just sliding off their shield of unadulterated arrogance in a wonderfully nuanced performance of resident evil and a splendidly wicked rendition of Cell Block Tango from Chicago, complete with chairs and long, long legs.
Danny Beard as the evil fairy Carabosse Picture: Tyler Whiting Fun comes in the shape of Ian Adams as Dame Mary Fortune and Tam Ryan as Mickey Fortune . . . this year. Having known Ian from his Lichfield Garrick days as a writer, director and a bloke in a frock, by my count this is his 27th panto season (his ninth at the Grand), and at 66 he is aging like fine wine. Rodgers and Hammerstein were not thinking of panto when they penned There is Nothing like a Dame, but it is apt, there really is nothing like a dame, a purely British invention credited to Dan Leno at the end of the 19th century. It's not drag, or cross dressing, it's . . . well . . . it's a bloke in a frock. Ian has honed the skill of being the brassy, overbearing mother figure, with the odd risque aside, always on the right side of smut, allied to a rapport with the audience.
Debra Stephenson as Queen Bertha of Bilstonia. Picture: Tyler Whiting And when it comes to rapport Tam Ryan in his fifth panto at the Grand, has, like Ian, become a festive fixture and he has the audience eating out of his hand from the moment he walks on stage. He's our old mate these days and you feel the audience perk up whenever he appears and, in his case, familiarity breeds content. Also at the fun end of proceedings is Debra Stephenson as Queen Bertha of Bilstonia; we all know her as both an actress and a skilled impressionist, so she comes with as many celebrities as you want, she's a star, take your pick which one, for any occasion. Wolverhampton's Zak Douglas adds his own humour as Gerald the Herald, with and without a pith helmet, an unfortunate name which is a gift for the script. Meanwhile, as this is a fairy story it needs its hero and heroine, so enter Solomon Davy as Prince Stephen and Georgia Iudica-Davies as Princess Beauty, our happy couple (eventually) and Georgia didn't age a bit in her 100 year sleep – which, incidentally, must be the longest interval between acts in any pantomime. The pair are the sort of straight bit, the sensible part of the story and hold their end up well. the romance, proposal, marriage stuff, and both have fine voices with blend together well when required. Meanwhile Solomon and Zak found themselves roped into another modern panto tradition, the old 12 days of Christmas routine with the bra, pots and pans and so on – no toilet rolls this time around. When Ian arrives on stage in wellies and a tarpaulin is rolled out, seasoned panto goers know that the song is going to become messy, and this is Messy with a capital M. It was a routine to make chaos look routine as The Prince and Mickey did their own version of Slip, Slidin' Away, scenery collapsed and enough custard pies to feed a small nation were deposited on Tam . . . and the audience loved it. Slapstick at its messy best. Aiding the named characters was a hard-working ensemble who had to deal with some quick costume changes, and we even had a giant dragon appearing with glowing eyes, flames and steam for the prince to fight to save his princess (spoiler alert – the dragon lost). Ian and Tam wrote the script, their third collaboration, and there are some very funny lines, with some bang up to date references in there and some clever moments such as when the Prince starts to sing his sad song, I'm All Alone, which . . . well that would be telling, let's just say the original Spamalot joke has done a Topsy and grown somewhat. David Shield's set is bright, sparkly – apart from Carabosse's dingy castle of course – and director David Janson keeps up a fair old pace which means youngsters in the audience don't have time to be bored, and, when it comes to youngsters, there is nothing in there to leave parents floundering for answers to awkward questions, another tradition of panto . . . keep it family friendly. The fine five-piece band under musical director Daniel Goodger sound bigger than their number and there is a range of songs for all age groups. Shakespeare might be our gift to the world of theatre, but panto is equally important. It is probably the first experience of theatre for many children. Staring at screens cannot compete with the magic of live theatre, get the magic right and it can recruit the next generation of theatre goers, and the magic continues to 04-01-26 Roger Clarke 03-01-25 |
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