Dick Whittington

Westfield Productions are in the habit of sending members of the cast into the auditorium before curtain up to get the audience shouting and to make sure that the kids get the idea that they can interact with the action on the stage.  This time it was the turn of Abi Simper who did a great job as Idle Jack, getting the audience to hiss and boo - good practice for the opening front-of-curtain sequence with the first appearance of the fearsome King Rat (Graham Barnes), although at times his script assumed the audience would be hissing when they actually preferred to boo.  He returned later to show off an excellent singing voice, notably for Live and Let Die.

The original script, by director Paul Munday, made space for a lot of cameo roles and songs and dances by the various chorus groups.  This was great for spectacle, and the cameos were very good - notably Catherine Robinson and Chloe Andrews as Whiff and Pong, the henchrats, Karla Moore as the fairy and Carly Goodman as a calm, self-assured policeman.  The compromise was cutting down on time for some of the principals; I would have liked to have seen more from Tommy the cat (Michelle Cummins) who was allowed a very quick dance and a couple of chases, but otherwise demonstrated some beautifully cattish idleness (surprisingly expressive under the make-up and prosthetic nose).  One of the innovations of the script was interaction between King Rat and a narrating voice-over.  This was worth trying, but, in my view, didn’t quite come off, as it was hard for the audience to engage with the unseen character.

Nicole Cummins made a very good thigh-slapping principal boy in the title role and sang well, particularly with Bethen Drew as Alice, daughter of the Alderman (Chris Thompson).  Sarah Channell was great fun as Sarah the Cook (the dame role), as was the aforementioned Abi Simper as her idle son, but when they were on together they tended to get into bouts of competitive, excited shrieking in which their lines got rather overwhelmed.  I enjoyed Tom Steckler’s cameo appearance as the Sultan.  (I don’t know why I should be surprised at how well he dances, but I was.  It was good.)

There was a very impressive dockside scene at the end of act 1, with a gangplank leading to an upstage ship - this was amazingly well done for a set that only appeared for one scene.  The technical crew made some good use of moveable lights (this year seems to be the year of moveable LED lights) which, amongst other effects, allowed them to light an appearance of the fairy at the side of the auditorium.  There was also good use of a range of pyros, notably from the payoff of the running “don’t press the panic button” gag, adding to a spectacular show.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.