Rapunzel

Wellingborough Pantomime Society has produced a very traditional version of “Rapunzel” with lots of good clean family entertainment. The director Gary L Johnson has done a very good job, with good casting and staging; I did feel that at times it lacked pace, resulting in some of the jokes being lost. The musical director Jonathan Ellson has done very well, there were great music choices and the company were in fine voice. The cast were ably backed by an excellent four piece band. The choreography by Kerry-Anne McCorrmach-Morgan was well chosen and suited all age ranges in the company. Well done to all the production team!

There were some good performances from all the cast. The title role of Rapunzel was beautifully played by Rebecca Hayward. Isabel Panter was a very dashing Prince. The evil character Gothel was played by Carole Haynes who gave the audience plenty of opportunity to boo and hiss and was ably backed by her sidekicks Ball (Cara Howard) and Socket (Johanna Beech) Nurse Hetty was played by David Wicks who gave an excellent performance, he had a great rapport with the audience and never missed a gag! Good character acting from Martyn Peck as Sergeant and Reece McCorrmach-Morgan as Willy. There was plenty of opportunity to cheer with a delightful trio of Fairies – Fairy Good (Carla Valentino) Fairy Well (Glenda Biggs) and Fairy Nuff (Seycha Panter).There was a very strong and well- timed performance from David Mander as King and Kate Morris worked well with David as Queen. Well done to all the cast! A special mention to the two teams of Junior Dancers and to the Senior Dancers who all worked very hard and clearly were enjoying being part of the company.

The sets were excellent and very well managed. The costumes were all very good and in keeping with the period. The props too were excellent and well utilised. The lighting and sound quality was very good throughout.

Thank you to all at Wellingborough Pantomime society both on and off the stage for this highly entertaining production of “Rapunzel”. I would like to say a fond farewell to David Wicks who says that after forty-three pantomimes he is retiring, I know that he will be sorely missed!

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.