Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty is a traditional fairy tale about a princess who is cursed by an evil fairy to die on her 16th birthday after pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. However, a good fairy intervenes and changes the curse so that the princess will instead fall into a deep sleep for 100 years, from which she can only be awakened by a prince's kiss.

The story follows the princess as she grows up, unknowingly approaching her doomed 16th birthday, and the efforts of the good fairies and the prince to protect her from the curse.  This production by Grange Musical Theatre Society - Youth Ensemble was, as always, performed by a talented group of youngsters, all under 18.  This is their second show since Covid hit and it’s good to see this group back on their feet with full force.  

King Catus (Taylor Tyson / Emelia Scott) was played with gusto, supported by Queen Marigold (Emilia Law / Tilda Rice) also nicely played.   

The role of Princess Rose was played with great charm and grace by Debra Nyamai, enthusiastically supported by Katey Murgatroyd as Prince Alexis.  

As with most pantomimes, the bulk of the comedy comes from the Dame/Dame's family, double acts etc.  

Nurse Nettie Harpic was played by Oliver Pearson.  He did a fabulous job of the Dame role and made the part his own, with superb interaction with audience members and keeping up with “callbacks” to prior jokes. The role of Dame is never an easy one - even for seasoned performers. Oliver took it all in his stride in a manner far beyond his years. Well done, Oliver.  

Muddles was in the capable hands of Amos Rand. He took his comedic role seriously throughout - especially in the school room scene, where he had the audience laughing along with him.  

Fetch and Carrie (Casper Brocklebank and Eleanor Tegg) were a good duo, working together well, especially in their very wordy "list" scene.  

Finally we have Good Fairy Lilac (Charlotte Lucas), Bad Witch Hazel (Sophie Pennock) and Egor (Charlie Robson), all playing well off each other, carrying us through the story in finely tuned performances.  

There were many other smaller roles too numerous to mention, but everybody played their parts well.  I particularly liked the approach to performing the songs – with some Pantomime groups, they do the full song, seven choruses and a large dance routine. Not so with Grange- A mixture of old and new, a couple of verses and choruses, energetic dance routine, then onto the next scene without losing the flow of the piece.

Staging and lighting was complimentary to the show throughout. One of the main features of a Grange show, is that you always feel that the technical team have been involved from the start, with nearly every sound cue timed perfectly, you know there is an attention to detail here that some venues lack.  

Grace Heap's direction, movement and choreography were very good, everyone really looked as though they were enjoying themselves – knowing both their moves, and the song words, and exactly where they were supposed to be, and how to react at all times. 

As usual, the real litmus test is how much the six year old we had with us enjoyed it…..  and it was a big thumbs up from him.  

Well done, Grange Musical Theatre Company Youth. Thank you for your invite and hospitality.                                                            

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