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Still walking tall through the air
The Snowman Birmingham Rep **** THE Snowman first flew and melted hearts,
and then, sadly, just melted, at Birmingham Rep some 20 Christmases ago
and two decades and a change of century on it has lost none of its charm
or innocence. There is nothing to frighten the horses or shock
a maiden aunt and it remains a marvelous introduction for toddlers to
the magic of theatre with everything from dance and mime to ballet
covered. As adults we can all see the hint of the secret
of flight but for children who have no knowledge of flying harnesses and
the hidden secrets of the flies, the snowman and boy taking to the air
in real life is an enchanted moment no mere cartoon on TV can
match. This is real flying. Raymond Briggs story is simple. A little boy
builds a snowman and when everyone is asleep goes downstairs to make
sure his snowman is all right only to find he has come alive and the
pair set off on an adventure to the North Pole before returning home. The next morning though is warm and sunny and the
boy’s best friend, the Snowman, has melted . . . except there is hope as
it starts to snow again with the promise of another snowman and another
adventure. Martin Fenton and this performance, Edward
Stevens share the arduous role of snowman – dancing in a snowman
costume containing a mile of white net, under stage lights and amid the
warmth of a full house could hardly be described as cool and refreshing,
despite being at the North Pole. While Archie Durrant, Charlie Salsen and, in this
performance, Joe Sheriden share the role of the boy. And Joe gives it plenty of enthusiastic wellie as
he stamps through the imaginary snow. As for the Snowman’s dancing . . .
difficult to say – try doing ballet in a duffle coat and moon boots and
see how it feels. Just moving around deserves some credit yet his dance
with the Ice Princess, Soonja Lee, was a rather touching pas de deux, a
sort of arctic beauty and the beast. She was the second ballerina with the first, from
a music box, Megan King, with both no doubt delighting little girls in
the audience.
Little boys would perhaps be more impressed by
cowboy snowmen or Jack Frost, danced by Paul Farrell, who was a spiky
addition to the Brigg‘s original. Old Jack has his eyes upon the Ice
Princess until the Scotty Snowman delivers which is colloquially known
as a Glasgow kiss . . . Jimmy which dampens his ardour, and flattens his
nose, somewhat. The stage production with additional music and
lyrics by Howard Blake, who wrote the music for the film, choreographed
by Robert North and directed by Bill Alexander, also introduces a few
more characters, including limbo dancing pineapple, coconut and banana
who appear from a fridge. There is also another difference in that instead
of a boy soprano singing, the haunting Walking in the Air is
sung, quite beautifully by Susan Monnox. A mention to for the five piece orchestra under
musical director David Quigley on keyboard who sounded much fuller and
larger than their number. A live band really does add an extra dimension
to any show. The end leaves us with the melted snowman but
before the tears appear there is that magical moment when it starts to
snow and the magic is doubled, or should be, when its snows upon the
audience. Sadly on Sunday afternoon whether because of
cutbacks or malfunction the expected blizzard to warm cockles of young
hearts was restricted to a few sprinkles to the far left and right of
the auditorium with the vast tract of the centre left in the imaginary
sunshine that had melted the snowman. Mind you my grandson of 31 months seemed to enjoy every moment although he was quite concerned at the blackouts for scene changes, of which there are quite a few in the first act, complaining, somewhat indignantly, that he wanted to see what was going on. But he did give his seal of approval at the
end: after having seen The Snowman and The Snowman and The
Snowdog as a double header on TV he declared, as everyone started to
leave, that he would stay to watch the snowdog if that was all right,
thank you. And you can’t get a better recommendation that that. To
18-01-14. Roger Clarke And a dad drifting in from the side . . .
The Snowman is the quintessential Christmas cartoon for children thus as
a parent it presents a fairly sizable risk for a theatre trip with a
little one; will the Rep do it justice. The show couldn’t be in safer
hands as the Rep created the show in 1993, alongside original composer
Howard Blake. My two and half year old
enjoyed every minute. The Snowman moves along
briskly and has a good score and a decent dose of flying snowmen. It’s not too scary for little
ones and not too patronising for older ones and ‘the boy’ does a good
job of showing the love between a child and his snowman - though for all
the costumes on display it is a shame that they couldn’t have stretched
to a ginger wig for him - the kids may not have cared but this big kid
did. Overall if your children like
the snowman they’ll love this and at one hour 40 minutes including
interval it’s just the right length to prevent them getting fidgety. As a parent though, the only
black mark against the Rep is the finale. It’s difficult to explain to
the children in the centre seats why there is snow falling on to the
children to the left of them and on to the children to the right of them
but not on them. Snow for all or snow for none!!! Apart from that a good show
for young and old. Theo Clarke
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