Goldilocks and the Three Amazing Bears

Goldilocks would seem an unusual choice to base a whole pantomime around, after all there is only so much story you can get out of a young girl breaking into a family home; stealing food and vandalising furniture but credit must go to Matthew Maisey who really managed to pad out the story with plenty of sub plots involving ruthless circus owners; boogying bears and inept circus performers, without it feeling too bloated or stretched.  Matthew’s script was full of corny jokes but unfortunately some of them didn’t seem to land well with the audience which was a real shame, as I thought they were all very funny.  I wonder if perhaps some of the jokes were a little too clever for the younger audience or maybe the older audience were nursing some fuzzy New Year related heads!  The gorilla segment and the call back to Not the Nine O’Clock News was particularly good.

As said, the script by Matthew was full of jokes and he definitely managed to tick all the panto boxes, everything was here from community song to UV scene, although I am not sure if there was a lighting issue, as this didn’t seem to work as well as I would have expected, it also did seem a little disjointed with the rest of the pantomime.  Matthew obviously has a good eye for comedy and the “log scene” in Snow White is still my all-time favourite panto moment.  This year’s highlight had to be the Old Macdonald Song behind the fence which was very funny indeed, ad-libs, corpsing and all.

The sets for this production were mostly very simple, but beautifully painted, backdrops.  This was a good idea and kept the panto moving along at a good steady pace.  However, the sets for the bears house and the circus were actually built on the stage and these were amazingly well constructed and detailed.

The overall look for the show was well thought out and all the costumes; make-up and wigs/hair were great.  I especially loved the three bears costume and make-up and the themed look to the finale costumes.

The orchestra and the singing were well balanced and they both complimented each other very well.  In fact, the singing was of a very good quality and some of the harmonies were incredibly well delivered, I thought that Mummy and Daddy Bear’s song, “Shared Porridge”, was particularly well song and very cleverly re-written.  The choreography throughout the production was straightforward and well executed, which gave a lovely overall effect.  It was nice to see that you also managed to find some space for a Junior chorus, as well as the adult one, and both the choruses worked incredibly well.  You obviously have some very talented youngsters, who I am sure will be stepping into principle roles in the goodness of time.

As already mentioned, “Shared Porridge” was a lovely song choice but it also has to be added that all the songs were well chosen.  So often, I have to see a pantomime with the same tunes but it was a nice change to see a show with completely different songs.

Matthew’s original script was certainly packed with plenty of opportunities to allow the performers to really shine and it was great to see that everyone really ran with these moments and clearly were enjoying themselves.  Daisy Gray and Elisha Webster, did a sterling job as the principle boy and girl and had lovely chemistry together, their harmonies weren’t half bad too.  Matt Turner was a good typical baddie and on several occasions really managed to whip the audience up, I particularly liked the fact he was so bad he had decided not to make jokes and give educational information instead, pure evil!  Dave Bonser and Bethany Baker did a fantastic job of playing Baby and Daddy Bear and I think it should not be under-estimated how incredibly uncomfortable it must have been on stage; under hot lights; under all that make-up; whilst wearing a full bear outfit, if this did make it hard for them to perform you would never have known, very professional indeed.  As always with a panto, the crowd favourites are the silly characters and in this panto we had three Lenny, Splat and Tumble played by Christian Lockyer, Tris Hann and Matthew Maisey.  All three of these gentleman are obviously very capable stage actors and they all played their parts incredibly well and timed jokes perfectly. Matthew specifically is always a pleasure to watch and his performances always remind me of vaudeville/music hall style, which I am a big fan of.  If I had to make one criticism here, and it is only my opinion, I wonder if perhaps there was not quite enough mileage in having three silly characters and the comedy may have benefitted from only having two!  Last, but by no means least, was Glynn Webster as Mummy Bear (a Dame in all but name), Glynn is an incredibly talented performer and he definitely stole the show, again he was caked in make-up and fur but it didn’t slow him down and he easily managed to have the audience in the palm of his/her hand, and then did not let them go until the final curtain.

Overall, this was another good panto performance from Glastonbury and one that I really enjoyed, thank you very much.

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