Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

I was warmly welcomed at Front of House on my arrival at this lovely venue and met with Abigail Overall, the Director, Producer and Choreographer.

With two exceptions all the cast were juniors with some very young children on stage. There were two alternating casts allowing, in total, some 60 juniors to be actively involved. No easy job for the team of chaperones who are to be congratulated!

The panto opened on the village green with a lively rendition of “Dancing on the Ceiling” featuring Fairy Flora (Gracie Hughes) and a group of dancers. Fairy Flora had a major role as the narrator throughout and did this really well and confidently. George Hughes, as Clarissa the Cook played a strong role as the panto Dame and, with his silly son Muddles, played by Peter Ballisat, provided much of the comedy in this fast moving script.

Snow White, played by Issy Reeve, was loved by all except by her jealous stepmother, Queen Evilynn (Nicole Taylor) .

The scene changed to the palace with lots of bright lighting to introduce the Queen who had a very strong singing voice. Here also was Mirriam the Magic Mirror, played very confidently by Eleanor Rice who also had a great singing voice. Prince Valiant (Barnaby Brown) then appeared and although slightly lacking in confidence, sang “Kiss” very tenderly. The highlight for me in Act One was the cast and chorus number “ Everybody Needs Somebody” with great singing and dancing, including tap and fabulous costumes.

Then we met the seven dwarfs, Prof (Charlie Larkin), Grouchy (Araya Jackson), Daffy (Eriden Jackson), Giggler (Lacey Harris), Blusher (Holly Rippingale), Whiffy (Gracie-May Cook) and Titch (Thomas Overall). They were all very well rehearsed and played their roles brilliantly. The costumes, green and red, were fantastic and created a great effect. I have to say that Titch (age 2)brought extra comedy to the script by pulling up his top and revealing his tummy during this !

Highlights for me in Act Two were Mirriam the Magic Mirror’s powerful delivery of “Black Magic Woman” and the comedy within the 12 Days of Christmas, delivered at speed and with such hilarious actions by Clarissa and Muddles. I will remember a Partridge in a Pear Tree for a long time! Real panto humour !

The script was well chosen and casting, in the main, good. The musical numbers were generally well known to the audience so congratulations to Robert Turner for achieving such good results with the music, aided by the vocal coaches. Costumes were very colourful and quite extravagant in some cases, so well done to Abigail Overall and Emily Littlejohn for their vision. The dancing was well choreographed and rehearsed and the set and stage was well managed by Adam Littlewood, with scenery and props directed by Emma Theedom. In fact, the production team all worked well together across many roles.

It was wonderful to see so many children on stage, mainly confident in what they were doing and clearly enjoying the experience !

Congratulations to Director, Abigail Overall for her creativity and “ jack of all trades” approach which was clearly a winning formula here.

The audience, probably rather partial, enjoyed this enormously as did I. Well done everyone.

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