Red Riding Hood

A clever extension of the original Red Riding Hood story by script-writer Sally-Anne Davies to include the Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, a Fairy Godmother and her troupe of student fairies, and several characters normally found in other pantomime stories. A very good set to show off this production with Ugly Sisters Rapella and Flatula (Lesley Clarke and Chris Aldrich) doing the changes. After writing the script, the author could not resist auditioning for the title role and what a good job she did of realising the story, a very good singing voice for the numbers, and generally leading the cast. Her two suitors, her love Peter (Andy Boston) and the boastful Pickworth (Luke Fairweather), worked well and kept the story moving in dialogue and singing. Granny (Corinna Laughton) and Fairy Godmother Rhoda (Julie Hagan-Palmer) both had very important roles in this story and were well portrayed. Liked Rapunzel, Goldilocks, Arrabella, Father McSpreadda and his Little Pigs, the Mayor and all the village folk: must particularly congratulate the entire large chorus and minor principals for the huge amount of singalong music learnt and delivered to make the feet tap. The Wolf (Dean Akrill) was a very nasty piece of work, the makeup was exemplary and fitted the character to perfection, the wickedness was delivered at full power with great style and volume in dialogue and vocal, not someone to meet on a dark night! Coco De Mere’s Beautification Boutique sequences, and her appearances in the village, were the amazing venue for Toni Morina who just stole the show with her personality, her timing and comedy, totally OTT and perfect in pink. A really good entertaining evening and hopefully good audiences throughout the weekend.

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