Snow White and the Four Popstars

You can’t go far wrong with the music of ABBA and in a year when the Swedish Popstars returned to the limelight after a long retirement, it is a very clever idea to base a Pantomime around their music. Not only does it guarantee that the cast and band will have fun performing but the audience will sing along at every opportunity. The replacement of the seven Dwarfs with the retired four members of BABA and casting a female Principal Boy and Dame also rebalances the gender mix of the cast very effectively.

In between the songs, the script needed more jokes and traditional pantomime business but the strong cast work hard to make the most of it with some very good leading performers with excellent singing voices backed by a full sounding five-piece band. There was some good recurring business with four cut out trees with human “braces” who observed the goings on in the Woods and some charming woodland creatures.

It was refreshing to see a new twist on a familiar story and the incorporation of the ABBA  music and characters made this a promising concept. The Shinfield Players showed they have the singers to deliver on this promise and with plenty of interaction from the stage with the audience it was easy to see why the audience engaged so well and as a result cast and audience enjoyed the shared experience.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.