Pinocchio, The Pantomime

Pinocchio, The Pantomime roughly follows the original story of Pinocchio. Having the usual characters, The Blue Fairy, Jiminy Cricket, Stromboli and of course Geppetto, Pinocchio`s creator. Throw in a few new characters- Mama Macaroni (the panto dame who has her sights on Geppetto) and her son, Lampwick to help them through their journey, throw in a few (or lots of) songs and hey presto, you have a pantomime….

Jack Moore took on the role of Pinocchio with conviction. Full of enthusiasm throughout, Jack showed us he could sing and dance- both at the same time, although I did get the feeling he was a much better mover than the choreography allowed him to be, and that stifled a lot of his movement. Well Done.

As with all pantomimes, you always know that everything will turn out right in the end- especially when you have a Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket to help you along the way, both competently played by Roisin McCann and Declan McCann.

Pinocchio`s creator, Gepetto was played by Derek Longstaff. Derek played a rather self-effacing Gepetto, who seemed to prefer blending in with everyone else when they were on-stage. Whilst I could possibly understand this in a play, in Panto the character should almost be as exaggerated as the Dame- in this case, Mama Macaroni, played by Debbie McCann. A woman playing the dame in pantomime is probably one of the hardest roles to play in any production, especially when every parting line is an innuendo based around the dame`s  masculinity. For me , this didn`t quite work, as the inference that there`s more of a surprise for people than they think is lost.

Arthur Xavier played Lampwick, Mama Macaroni`s son with confidence and a swagger, ensuring that the audience were in on everything going on.

Stromboli, the evil puppeteer who imprisons Pinocchio for his own iniquitous plans was played by Lou Towsend, relishing the role of the baddie, ably supported by Connie Stewart and Jorja Nickson as Fox and Cat- Their “Any Dream Will Do” being one of the highlights for me.

The chorus worked well, and were well drilled in their song lyrics, although the one thing missing was a smile.

Staging was simple, and the chorus made full use of the areas available, sound and light complimentary to the piece

Lucy Stewart and Chris Metcalf took on the roles of Choreographers, Co-Directors (with Christine Bell) and Musical Directors for the production. It was a bold attempt at this kind of multi- tasking, but I think that the choreography suffered due to it, as it felt that more time had been spent on the songs and music-which were in fact great, if a little long. By the end of the first half, many of the younger audience had become a little restless- this may have been avoided if the songs were cut a little, and each half  kept down to less than seventy minutes, even better, an hour.

This said, the audience seemed to enjoy the Pantomime, even the chap who was hit on the head with a boiled sweet.

Congratulations, Garstang Theatre Group, and thank you for your hospitality

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