Sleeping Beauty

Margate Operatic Society has a reputation for delivering high quality productions that attract capacity audiences and this was no exception (though the opening night audience was unusually small) and from curtain-up the well-chosen principals were immediately into character.

The young dancers were a delight and performed their routines whilst maintaining smiles throughout. The costumes were colourful and well-fitting and there was good use of lighting and sound effects. There were a few issues with sound on opening night but nothing that detracted from the fine performances on stage. The scene changes were speedily executed by the efficient stage crew and the appearance of a dragon excited many. Choreography was vibrant and everyone performed with such energy and enthusiasm throughout. Music choices for this production were brilliant. Music is such an important part of pantomime and this production had it just right.

So to the principals:  Mollie Knight presented us with a lovely Princess Rose. It made a change to see some comedy from a principal girl. Her first solo song with some dubious woodland creatures was very funny indeed. She also held together some modern duets with Rob Gore in the role of Prince Bruce.

Peter Barlow and Jacqui Simpson as the King & Queen respectively were well in character throughout, and both worked superbly together.  The baddie, Maleficent played by Megan Webb gave us a nice contrast between herself and the good fairies. I’m not quite sure why she didn’t get more “boos” and hisses from the younger members of the audience (or indeed the older ones!) but for future reference it would be worth having a variety of audience put downs up your sleeve to whip the audience up into a booing frenzy. Harcus Cropper as Igor, Maleficent’s side kick was self-assured and confident on the stage spewing one liners at a rapid rate. A natural comedian he knew how to work an audience or a situation if things weren’t going quite to script!

Lloyd Newstead did well as Nursey, the dame of the piece though the script didn’t offer him as much opportunity to relish the dame role as some other scripts do. He was your typical “man in a dress” which I loved and was suitably costumed in an over the top way throughout.

Finally, we have my performers of the evening. The three good fairies were the stars of this pantomime production. Karen Martin as Blossom, Donna Clements as Buttercup and Mary Peskett as Bubbles all had very individual characters yet totally gelled as a trio. Their singing was fantastic and they brought such heart and humour to the production.

This pantomime was a slick and fast paced with plenty of traditional elements to keep the audience engaged throughout. It had plenty of gags and the right amount of pathos performed by a high energy cast who were certainly happy to be entertaining.

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