Mother Goose

From the off, Startime Variety had the ‘Mother Goose’ audience in Panto mode.  Instead of the traditional overture of a selection of numbers from the show, we had a great original song, composed by the Musical Director, Chris Handley, to get us in the mood – Honk! Honk!, with the band enthusiastically joining in.

Co-Producer (with Lisa Whitehouse), in-house author and ensemble member, Holly Mills’ entertaining script introduced to us an eclectic band of characters and set herself some difficult tasks to maintain – ‘The Fairy of Joy’, played delightfully by Laura Wall, had the unenviable task of entertaining us with some quite contrived and complicated rhymes as well as being an integral part of the action, and she did it superbly. Ryan Wall’s American ‘Demon King’ on the surface seemed a bit out of kilter with the rustic life of Goose Farm, but he made it appear quite natural and Henchmen, ‘Bran’ and ‘Heinz’, played by Matt Robinson and Kieran King, set themselves a massive undertaking with their masterful and relentless ad-libs at every turn, which they maintained with great success, much to the enjoyment of the audience.

Taylor King’s Dame ‘Lizzy Goose’ manipulated the audience with great effect, moving from sympathising over the unreasonable and convincing financial demands of Julie Evans’ ‘Squire Bean’, to her desire to be beautiful – although I would have liked to have seen a few more outrageous frocks on display! Sara Aldridge, as silly-billy ‘Bertie Bean’ gave as good as she got in her battles to break away from her disagreeable Squire father.

The trial scene, under the watchful eye of ‘Goose Rinder’ played with suitable authority by Liz Bennett seemed to be a bit restricted by the Judge’s Bench and the Dock but that in no way dented the performance of ‘Bill’ and ‘Beek’, the Geese Police played by co-choreographer, Tina Lilly and my star turn, Bobby Murphy – a true Panto star of the future I have no doubt!

The Panto performances of the night came from Gemma Shaw’s ‘Gertie (call me Gigi) Goose’, never once losing her unbounding enthusiasm for the genre (as well as being co-choreographer) and the anthropomorphic ‘Priscila the Goose’ played with great relish by Georgina Philpott.  I particularly liked how Georgina was able to demonstrate the not-too-nice side of her character but keep the audience on her side! They made a great partnership and the stage positively glowed as they moved the story along with great pace.

The happy, smiley ensemble and dancers gave great energy to the numbers, a pleasing mixture of the more traditional and the more modern made even more watchful by the extremely well-executed choreography and the support of Chris Handley and the Band.

The appreciative audience took a little while to get going but were soon in the swing of the panto vibe, although a few more auditorium entrances and close up banter may have helped to raise the audience’s involvement.

Halesowen Town Hall, or The Cornbow Hall as many of us have known it over the years, is not the easiest venue to manage technically but Simon Wickes and The Lighting Factory provided some great lighting and sound effects.

My most grateful thanks to everyone at Startime Variety for their warm welcome and also for the opportunity to meet the cast after the performance, it was very gratefully appreciated. Onwards and upwards to their summer concert, ‘The Musicals Showdown’ in July.

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