Puss In Boots

The Priory Centre plays host to a number of local groups and this was my fourth or fifth visit to the venue to see St Neots Players’ pantomime Puss In Boots. This was the busiest I had seen the venue, so much so that our allocated seats had been filled and we were ushered to sit elsewhere. Nevertheless we had a good view of the action and it was an experience to be in the middle of a packed audience on a Saturday afternoon. Puss In Boots certainly helped to beat away the January Blues for myself and seemingly the packed audience of St Neots.

It was nice to see familiar faces from other local groups and productions popping up in this panto too. I instantly recognised George Kelly and Daniel Benning who had been so good in another recent production I had reviewed. And as with that production, I must once again comment on the exquisite design of the programme by Tim Powers Design, it really is of excellent quality. Sticking with the incestuous elements of the societies of St Neots first: Set Design is once again by Cheeky Llama Productions and whilst rather basic by many pantomime’s lavish production values, it served the piece well. Secondly, Lighting and Sound are once again helmed by Dave and Kate Maltby. The sound is better than on my previous visits to this venue, however no mix is required for a live band as all of the music is performed to backing tracks. The lighting is unexciting but I feel this may be due more to the limitations of the venue rather than a lack of expertise from the lighting designers.

As the plot of Nigel Holmes’ ‘purr-fect panto’ goes, Dame Dotty’s husband dies and leaves his three chil- dren his mill, his donkey and cart and to his youngest son Colin, he leaves the cat. This at first would appear a rather poor deal, however the cat acquires some magical footwear and becomes Puss In Boots. Puss helps Colin defeat the evil Ogre and her sidekick Lady Latreena. Colin ends up acquiring the Ogre’s castle and permission to wed the beautiful Princess and they live Happily Ever After.... As Colin, newcomer Daniel Benning is absolutely brilliant. One can hardly believe his lack of experience. He has very good presence, good comedy-timing, great diction and a decent singing voice with nice tone and clarity. He also seemed to have nice onstage chemistry in his duets, ‘Shine’ with Michael Mazzone as Puss, and in both ‘It Must Be Love’ and ‘Love Is An Open Door’ with Charlotte Phillips-Clarke as the Princess. ‘It Must Be Love’ was nicely staged. As the title character, Mazzone’s Puss In Boots actually has more of a minor role, however he does the role justice and both sings and acts well.

Comedy duo Pant and Spec played by Hugo Henche and Stephanie Pittam were an absolute joy. Hugo es- pecially lit up the stage in all of his scenes and played his comedy with such innocence, charm and en- thusiasm. Although the pair sang ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’ out of tune to the backing track, it genuine- ly didn’t matter because they gave their performance so much face and character that they won us all over, we overlook these minor glitches when in the hands of capable and confident entertainers. These two need their own programme on CBeebies – the kids loved them! Well done!

Brett Nunn as Dotty Drawers had a non-traditional take on the Dame which didn’t really work for me. Rather than high-camp, lots of extravagant costume changes and double entendre for the parents, Dotty was a man in a beard who seemed ill at ease with his role. I wasn’t getting any enjoyment or humour across from Nunn’s characterisation and the wig and costumes were disappointing. I got the hint from ad libbing by the extremely camp King played by Tony Knox that Knox has previously played the Dame. As with George Kelly as Fairy Fifi, Nigel Holmes’ script is less traditional camp-comedy and more risqué, verging at times on the inappropriate. I am not of a sensitive disposition but I cringed at some of the content from both Fairy Fifi and Dame Dotty Drawers. Some of the less offensive jokes were just poor, such as a person lov- ing two school bags being “bi-satchel”.

Carly Harvey as Lady Latreena, the evil henchwoman of the Ogre is a very strong performer. She had ex- cellent command of the audience and I thought she did a very good job. Although clearly less experi- enced and confident in her singing, Harvey’s confidence and consistent characterisation more than com- pensated for tuning issues in her song.

This pantomime’s secret weapon was the children of Langdale Dance Arts. These 10 children are an absolute credit to Tom Langdale and his team and demonstrate heaps of talent and potential. A few of them do need to remember to smile though! It’s a shame that they weren’t included in the programme as I do not know who to credit but the young lad (Hugo or Austin) who sang ‘Beautiful Monster’ deserves an ex- tra special applause. He sang superbly with confidence and ability beyond his years, he hit some awe- some notes and belted out some great riffs...huge potential...you put Ne-Yo to shame young man! Bravo to you!

The music which was all to backing tracks was an eclectic mix including Take That’s ‘Shine’, Meghan Trainor’s ‘Me Too’, ‘Chu-Chi Face’ from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, ‘Love Is An Open Door’ from Frozen and ‘Time Of Your Life’ by Green Day. Musically the best number in the show was at the top of Act II when Fairy Fifi performed ‘Devil Woman’. As I have said in a previous review, George Kelly is clearly a seasoned performer, he has incredible confidence onstage with equally matched command of the audi- ence. He was by far the strongest vocalist we heard in the show, coupled with the amazing Langdale dancers and some fantastic choreography, this was a first rate number.

For a pantomime aimed at children, it felt like a very long show and there were definitely some long scenes with the King and Queen which really dragged, the children around me became restless and noisy. Similarly, the Ball Fight scene towards the Finale went on a long time and Director Marina Coleman- Rivers would have done well to make some cuts or have picked up the pace. Nonetheless, the audience seemed to enjoy themselves, there were some good performances and some exceptional young dancers. Well done St Neots Players and thank you for the invitation.

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