Maid Marian and The Merry Men

‘Maid Marian and her Merry men’ was a British children’s television series which began in 1989 with the last episode in 1994. The show was partially musical comedy retelling the legend of Robin Hood, placing Maid Marian in the role of leader of the Merry men, reducing Robin to an incompetent. In this panto version with an obvious number of embellishments to the story for the stage, Maid Marion wants to join Robin Hood, as she feels equal to any man.

But, before even the curtain had been raised, when the usual standard announcements had been made by the mean Sheriff of Nottingham (Paul Tapley), you could tell the audience were instantly on board,  to take part in the best traditional panto fashion. Paul held the stage with strength throughout, enjoying the audience reactions to his natural meanness and insults. His rich tones were particularly evident leading the company in Abba’s ‘Money Money Money’. Loren Howland lit up the stage literally as ‘Mystic Mary’ a rather ditsy Fairy with a great voice.

Allan Brodie was a natural ‘Friar Tuck’ physically and in character, not always the brightest penny, but very endearing. ’Willy’ the Wally’ played by Matthew Owens was full of energy with a lovely disposition. We learnt his name but not sure why we never had the opportunity to repeat it? Cat Reeves played ‘Maid Marion’ with plenty of stature and sang well particularly leading ‘Right Hand Man’.

'Dame Do Dah’ was well played by Matt Tebbatt and after threatening to find a perfect man, well anyone breathing actually, in Act 1, I particularly enjoyed his interaction with the audience in Act 2 selecting the unsuspecting Derek for special attention! Peter Spence had some amusing one-liners as ‘Robin Hood’, with a voice, nice disposition and good way of delivering his dialogue. Meanwhile the Sheriff wants his nephew ‘Gisbourne’ well supported by Connor Holman, to marry Marian for her money and the principal line up was completed by Eve Meuz (‘Village idiot’) who was actually quite good at steering the early audience reaction.

There were some fluid company numbers and I particularly enjoyed ‘If you were a Woman’  and ‘Stronger ‘ from ‘Finding Neverland’ at the close of Act 1, with a great lighting effect at its conclusion. Loren sang well in ‘Get Happy’ opening Act 2 and another effective company number was Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’.  The band of four players and sound were generally well balanced and the staging with its mixture of cloths and projections, and costumes added to the overall effect. I am sure debut directors Hannah Burton and Lindsey Kirby were well pleased with the raucous audience reaction.

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