Aladdin

Beverley Musical Theatre

Aladdin

 

Director – Ian Thompson, Musical Director – Hannah Hughes and Choreographer – Rebecca Kingston

Beverley Memorial Hall

23rd November 2024

This year’s panto season has begun, and how nice it was to see a full audience on the opening day of Beverley Musical Theatres production of Aladdin. There’s always a lovely warm welcome at the Memorial Hall and the buzz of the audience really helped set the show. Aladdin is such a classic panto story, and the society worked well to live it up to its name. Even with a slight technical issue at the start of the show, the cast seemed unphased and carried on showing good professionalism and delivered an enjoyable performance.

The show started strongly with the introduction of our dastardly bad guy, Abanazar played by Adam Sperring and the polar opposite Cleopatra played by Sarah Hurst. Which then led into a lively rendition of ‘Keep on Movin’  by the ensemble and some principal cast members. This song was a great start to the show, setting a bouncy and happy tone for the rest of the show to follow. The set throughout was minimal consisting of a multitude of excellent backdrops with the odd staging item brought on to help set the scene. Costumes were bright and helped depict the era and location of the show.

The musicality of the show was a great standard under the care of Hannah Hughes as Musical director and accompanied by James Cope on Piano and David Stoten on Drums. The singing was sensational although at sometimes hard to hear over the musical accompaniment. One of the particular numbers that stood out for me was the wonderfully performed ‘Be Who You Wanna Be’, which was also an excellent link back to the Societies last, well received production.  The choreography that accompanied was excellently executed and the uniformity of positioning was seamless. It was really nice to see all the cast involved with the choreography. This was obviously well thought out and taught by choreographer Rebecca Kingston.

It was apparent that each member of the cast loved being on stage and held up their own part excellently. Everyone in the ensemble was included in many aspects of the show and brought great and busy atmosphere on stage. The show was full of excellently matched individuals that complemented each other’s ability. Jade Easom-Samuels as Aladdin and Georgia Kingston as Princess Lily Blossom were well matched when it came to their vocal and acting ability and portrayed the perfect panto couple. Captain Pig portrayed by Stanley Brown and Sergent Pepper portrayed by Melissa Kay were such a good comedy double act and really played off each other’s energy. In some examples opposition creates a perfect pairing and this was definitely apparent with Sarah Hursts portrayal of Cleopatra, where she oozed charisma, and the devious mannerisms of Adam Sperring as Abanazar. Sperring also performed an exceptional rendition of ‘You’re the One That I Want’, with hilarious interludes provided Mike Wells as Wishy Washy. Wells was such a talented actor; his audience participation was flawless and really fits well into the panto styling. Carrying on with our talent of two halves, Wells partnered the bubbly Claire Cooper as Spin Dry Suzie.Every princess needs an overpowering formidable mother and in this show that role was played spectacularly by Rebecca Hamilton as Emperess Knickerbocker Gloriana. No panto is complete without the traditional Dame and in this situation Ian Thompson, who also directed the show, played the brashy and eye-catching Widow Twanky. Similarly, no production of Aladdin is complete without the Genie of the Lamp played by Neville Slater who strongly showed a sense of power in each of his appearances on stage.

Panto season has definitely begun with an unforgettable bang, and each cast, crew and member of the production team should be exceedingly proud of what has been created. The overall vibe of the show was definitely suited to panto feel and it was clear younger members of the audience enjoyed themselves. I hope that the rest of the show is as well received and with as good an audience as they had on the evening I saw the show.

 

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