Rapunzel

An enthusiastic matinee audience packed the Little Theatre and the scene was soon set by Fairy Dandruff, of author Tom Whalley’s version of the well- known story set many years ago. The King and Queen of a far-off Kingdom were blessed with a baby girl with magical, golden hair. They named her Rapunzel. Their happiness was short-lived as one day the jealous, evil witch Mother Gothel kidnapped the child and locked her in a tower; selfishly squandering all her powers for herself. With the help of local hairdresser Dame Fanny Follicle, her silly sons Paz and Cal and the dashing Prince Ryder, the question was, would they ever find Rapunzel and return her to her family? 

Leah Hancox in her first leading pantomime role as Rapunzel, acted well and looked the part and had no idea that she was a Princess with magical powers, such was the determination of her captor Mother Gothel, played by Sue Rawlings. Sue maintained her evil character superbly throughout and the audience reacted accordingly! Naturally the evil Gothel was matched by the somewhat ditzy Fairy Dandruff, played well by Leigh Kendal who eventually shared the location of Rapunzel’s tower .

Our hero, Prince Ryder was also well played by Amy Pulford; both Amy and Leah had tuneful voices and in ‘Somewhere Out There’ blended well – I wanted the reprise in Act 2 to be longer! Neil Armstrong provided an excellent performance as Dame Fanny Follicle, and the scene with Paz (Kimberlea Owen) and Cal (Jack Forrester) in the ‘Curl Up and Dye’ salon was funny, especially the corny routine with a number of hair products. Also, the scene with the somewhat pompous King Bouffant (Mike Rawlings) who sat under the ‘Hair O Matic 2000’ was very funny. Mike spoke up well throughout and having lost his hair, reappeared later with a selection of amusing hair styles. Good characterisation.

I enjoyed ‘You Will Be Found’  sung by the company at the Lantern Festival and it was good to see the presence of youngsters in the company. The Herald played by Helen Williams provided some good support and amusing moments and the company number ‘Reach’ was a bright conclusion to Act 1.

Opening Act 2, Leigh was able to demonstrate her good voice with ‘Fabulous Fairy (Baby)’. The Prince soon announces his quest to find the Princess, Cal is called  ‘a hopeless romantic’ (Or was it just hopeless!)  and Mother Gothel is sneakily dispatched by Rapunzel to get her some hair conditioner, to aid her escape. Eventually Rapunzel is returned home and the company  sing ‘Celebrate’ at the Royal Palace.

There were some current and local references which went well with the audience and I liked the scene where Gothel transformed to the old lady – and the King cancelled her fuel allowance as well!  ‘Can’t Stop the feeling’ was another quite short number put I appreciate it was good to keep up the pace at that stage. There was a good mix of humour for young and not so young. Paz and Cal had now been given their own hairdressers shop and led the audience in a Barber Shop ‘sing along’.

With perhaps one small exception, the overall quality of the band and sound levels were good and a lot of work had gone into the set and costumes. Although the ensemble was not large in number they moved well and with a strong principal line up it was obvious from the audience reactions this was a successful production and all involved should be congratulated.

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