Aladdin

For their second ever pantomime this group of enthusiasts chose to perform a version of the well known panto tale “Aladdin” written and directed by company member Mark Hamilton. The venue has a very small stage but they added to the playing space with a stepped extension to the front, which brought the action out to the audience and was especially useful in the chorus numbers. Most of the musical numbers had well known tunes - coming from shows like Nine to Five, The Greatest Showman or Matilda the Musical or well known popular classics like Sweet Caroline and The Spice Girls “Wanna Be” – but with lyrics written by Musical Director Katie Bowes. The exception to this was the delightful “Flying High” sung by Aladdin and Jasmine which had both the music and lyrics specially written by Mark Hamilton. The show opened with Kat Folan as the truly boo-able villain Abanazar helped in his devilish ploys by his young sidekick Bila. We were then introduced to the Twankey family – a larger than life Widow Twankey played by Robert McGregor and her sons Wishee Washee played by James Taylor and the hero of the piece Aladdin played by Rachel Nightingale. James played Wishee Washee as a loveable cheeky-chappy bounding onto the stage at his every entrance yelling his signature catchphrase “Hello Boys and Girls” and eliciting a huge “Hello Wishee” back from the full house audience. Rachel made a good principal boy in the quest to win the hand of Sophie Barnett’s feisty Princess Jasmine. In this Aladdin was greatly assisted by the impressive Genie of the Lamp played by George Acheson-Thom who quickly built up a good rapport with the audience. Much of the comedy in the piece came in the form of Sarah Spalding’s Police Sergeant Swift and her apprentice young PC Taylor who in their dialogue delivered many of the local references which got great response from the locals in the audience. Strong support was given by Gemma Pegram as Sue Shi, Jasmine’s maid (and Wishee’s girlfriend!) and Michael Morrison as the Sultan. In a nice twist towards the end of the show Abanazar turned Wishee into a naughty Emu-like glove puppet expertly handled by Sue Shi. The chorus sang and moved well in the restricted space and especially when the full cast took to the stage for the finale to Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night”. Well done everyone at YADA for entertaining us on a wet and stormy December evening.

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