Aladdin

Aladdin is a great story for this year's pantomime for Highcliffe Charity Players, with a great script by Rob Fearn & Leo Appleton. The set was effective, lighting and sound just right, complete with The Flying carpet which looked really good. The costumes are very bright and colourful, a lot of thought has gone into colour schemes.

Matt Smith as Director has a great cast for this production, everyone works very well together and this really comes across. Stuart Darling as Musical Director keeps the pace up with a small band and some great song choices. The chorus and principals' singing is spot on. Travis Bussell as Choreographer has great fresh movement & dance ideas, which lets everyone dance to their different abilities. The main dancers are slick and work well together.

Aladdin is played by Bee Chumley. Bee is very believable in the role and, along with Princess Jasmine played by Keeley Marsango, they sing and act well together. Stanley Smith takes on the role of Widow Twankey, he has great comedy lines and songs, delivered superbly, every bit the dame with very good costumes. Lillian Coe plays Wishee Washee - she too is great in her character, getting into trouble while trying to help her mum and brother. The magic comes from Beth Burgum as the Genie of the Ring and Rachel Hensman as Genie of the lamp, both played their parts well. With every panto there is always a vilian, Abanazar was superbly played by Harry Young. He had great facial expressions and really enjoyed the audience booing him. Just the right amount of nasty. The comedy duo were Sergeant Ping played by Luke Greenacre & Sergeant Pong by Gabrielle Travers, they have some great comic lines, good timing, have the audience laughing along with them. They work very well together as a double act. Peter Whitaker plays The Sultan, he has a great stage presence, and every bit Jasmine's father - they have a great father/daughter relationship which is believable. Three other characters are Georgie Carter as Coco, Jasmine's hand maid, Huw Pilley as the Grand Vizier and Hannah Jean as Lola the duck. The Adult & Children's ensemble make up the rest of the pantomime.

Everyone looked like they were having fun, as did the audience. Well done to you all, I look forward to the next show. 

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