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Raising the bar for panto Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Birmingham Hippodrome ***** HIPPO pantos will have even more to live
up to from now on after Snow White raised the bar several notches. As
pantos go it is simply brilliant.
The cast gel
beautifully and Gary Wilmot as the cook, Nora Crumble, Matt Slack as
Oddjob, Paul Zerdin as Muddles and Gok Wan as the Man in the Mirror are
funny whenever they appear and provide a variation of the old
If I were not upon the stage
routine which left people with tears rolling
down their cheeks. And perhaps that was the secret of the whole
thing, it was fun, packed with laughs, with a simple well known story,
and plenty of daft interludes - almost a throwback to 1950’s variety
shows, but with 2013 production values. Gok Wan was a revelation. He might not be in
demand as a song and dance man after this but who cares, every time he
appears he fills the stage with an infectious enthusiasm and,
thankfully, the writers avoided the cheap, lazy option of filling the
show with gay jokes at his expense. He was funny, slick and managed one
of the biggest laughs of the night . . . when he could not get his
own lines out for laughing, with Wilmot, Zerdin and Slack helpfully
doing their best to prevent him regaining his composure. That’s what
friends are for in panto. Matt Slack, in his 14th consecutive Qdos panto,
is regarded as one of the nation’s leading panto comics, and it is easy
to see why. He is rubber faced, has funny walks and gestures, quips and
asides for every occasion and is genuinely funny, even making old jokes
seem fresh. And what more can be said of Gary Wilmot who has
become a West End institution, he can sing, he is funny and audiences
love him. This is his first stint as a panto dame and will surely not be
his last. He just oozes class. Paul Zerdin with Sam has taken ventriloquism to a new level and poor old Tom and Sarah dragged up from the audience had the full treatment as, wearing masks, they found Zerdin speaking for them. There is a fine line between funny and cruel when audience members are press ganged into service. We have to laugh with them, not at them, and Zerdin deftly made sure it was as much fun for his victims as the audience as he managed again later on with little lad Harrison. Harrison was one of the traditional handful of
kids brought onstage for a song and goody bag section, while the cast
get ready for the big finale. While three other children spoke for themselves,
Harrison’s voice was hijacked, very funnily by Zerdin, but the little
lad got extra presents for his unwitting part in the act.
Meanwhile back at the Snow White bit of the show
Stephanie Beacham is a deliciously evil Queen Sadista, glamorous,
sophisticated and bad as the day is long, while Danielle Hope, winner of
the BBC’s Over The Rainbow gives us a sweet Snow White with a
glorious voice. Her Prince John is John Partridge, Christian
Clarke in East Enders, who, incidentally was a judge on Over the
Rainbow so he would have been in for some right royal grief if
Princess Snow White had not won. His background though starts with ballet and then
musical theatre with plenty of West End shows to his credit so it should
be no surprise that he is a fine singer and dancer. The seven dwarfs are a strange mix, seven actors
on their knees which is quite funny in a way but gives the dwarfs a
rather laid back stance all the time and does make them rather bulky and
cumbersome to move around the stage. As for special effects, Twins FX, have given us a
rather scary, red eyed, smoke breathing giant dragon which soars
spectacularly over the audience in search of Snow White at the end of
Act one. Mind you the dragon is somewhat less scary when
it appears again in Act 2 with an accent that is more Dudley than deadly
and an aversion to flying to areas without proper landing facilities. There is a lively ensemble with some slick dance
routines choreographed by Karen Bruce and an excellent six piece
orchestra, who sound much larger, under musical director Robert Willis
and good clear, balanced sound from Gareth Owen. With direction by Michael Harrison and design by
Ian Westbrook, this is a show for all the family – and an excellent
introduction to the magic of theatre for any youngster heading for their
first show. Roger Clarke
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