Aladdin

It is always such a treat to visit Kyds in Tiptree as the excitement of the youngsters involved plus the full houses really makes me smile every time I go.  Their Christmas production of Aladdin was this year filled with promise as new members had taken over the main roles and I was eager to see this new team and how they developed as a company.

Kyds use the local school and only have a very short dress rehearsal the night before then just a couple of hours to set up lights sound and flats. Disaster struck the first night when all the data crashed and ways had to be found to get the computer working again. Just when they thought they would have to cancel to a completely full house it worked and the supportive audience cheered. It just goes to show what a great team Kyds have.

The tabs opened to a black silhouette of the buildings in Old Peking and four stalls and a beautifully costumed colourful ensemble. A good choice of opening song with ‘Come and See’ and then on came one of the stars of the show Charlie Warner playing Wishee Washee. His energy, characterisation and singing voice were really superb and really set the scene for the forthcoming panto. 

The next treat on stage was the three Dames; Twankey, Twinkey and Twonkey (Morgan Sheldon, Tyler Mansfield and Tommy Metcalf), with fabulous costumes and wigs and great comedic fun. They obviously had a great time playing these wonderful over the top characters and the audience loved them. Plenty of slapstick fun and of course the custard pie sketch which always causes great hilarity from the audience. I also loved the stage manager who slid on and cleaned up the mess. (Shades of ]The Play that goes Wrong] came to mind!)

Aladdin and the Princess (Daisy Loerns & Grace Robards) were well matched in voice and character and Aladdin’s mature improvisation on stage during the technical hitches was great to see. Not once did it faze them when one of the songs that they were supposed to sing didn’t happen but they kept going. Well done both of you.

Some lovely cameo acts. I really liked Stir Wok and Fry Wok who do work so well together. The Genie of the Lamp and Ring had lots of energy and who doesn’t like a pantomime camel? Not to be outdone the evil Abanazer was changed to Ethelazar a witch excellently played by Ellie Russell. Wonderfully nasty she really got the audience booing.

I can’t mention everyone but it was a very entertaining evening and you could see that all enjoyed it. A good smiling ensemble and audience song at the end made us all feel very festive.  Congratulations to all the backstage crew who worked so hard to put on this show and technical team who overcame the computer issues. Very well done and keep going Kyds.

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