Once Upon a Time in Pantoland

First we met the Spirit of Pantomime in her beautiful costume with the prologue. She explained the story so far and stayed in character throughout the show. 

The stage was set with the pantoland market square. The backdrop was very good and the triangular scenery pods on wheels worked well. There were two sets of steps leading to a nice raised platform which was used throughout theperformance. The fountain was a nice touch to complete the effect. 

This show had a very large cast and it was great to see the younger performers on stage. We had a lovely opening song with great choreography and lovely bright costumes. We then met Tommy, Tilly and Tallulah Tickle. We, the audience were asked to shout “Give us titter Tallulah” everytime she came on stage. Unfortunately the audience couldn’t remember such a long greeting and silence ensued. Perhaps “Hi Tallulah” would have sufficed. Tallulah had some amazing costumes throughout and played her part well. Tilly had a beautiful voice, singing many songs throughout the show. 

Next we met King Charming and his son Prince Willy(principle boy) who played their parts well. Also PC Pete and his dog Baxter. Baxter’s costume was excellent and his portrayal of a dog was very good. 

Then came Mouldywart the wicked witch with her cat Snitch. Mouldywart had great stage presence and interacted well with the audience. Great makeup and costume for both of these characters.

Another good backdrop for the country lane where we had a lovely song fromTilly and Flaky with dancers in the auditorium and bees and insects behind them in the lane. It certainly got the toes tapping. 

At the Fairy Academy the young singers and dancers performed Magic which was good. It was great to see the young performers enjoying this. Here we met the Fairy Grandmother and the Magic Mirror, which was a very clever effect. Then we had the song High Hopes with more great choreography. The band needed to be a bit quieter for this song as we struggled to hear the cast singing. 

I love a UV scene and I wasn’t disappointed by this one. It was spectacular with skull drummers, skeleton dancers and an enormous spider. Well done to the team who designed and made this happen. 

The King’s song “Ooh Child”was enjoyable with good choreography. Tilly, Willy and Tallulah performed “Things that go bump in the night” with some ghostly dancers around them.This was followed by “On the run again” and “Handclap”which were performed well. 

Baxter and Snitch had a lovely performance with “murder on the dancefloor” just before the song “We are family”. There was great choreography and nice bright costumes.  

The audience did enjoy the participation song of “Why why why Tallulah”with PC Pete and Tommy. 

We finished with a short rendition of “Walking on Sunshine” again with some members of the cast overflowing into the auditorium. 

I did struggle to hear one or two characters when speaking as they were not loud enough or lacked clarity. A lot of the characters had radio mikes but maybe the freestanding microphones needed to be slightly nearer the centre of the stage.It was a shame that Tallulah’s shop was stage left when we first saw it but by the end of the performance it was stage right. I did notice that the wicked witch broke the law of pantomime by leaving the stage on the wrong side. 

Well done to all the cast and crew for a wonderful performance. I hope you will find this notes useful for future productions. Thank you so much for inviting me and I look forward to your next performance.

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