Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs

Panto-mania once again comes to the Carnegie Theatre, this year in the guise of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs.  I attended the second of a nine show run and left the theatre with so many thoughts swirling around my head about this production, it’s taken a good few days for me to weave them into this, my last report of the 2023 season! 

The audience in which I attended took a little to warm up, but the company kept at them with huge energy, particularly Sarah Deans as the wicked Queen Malevolent and Abbie Johnsen as Fairy Apple Blossom. By the time they had cast their spell there was plenty of Boos to the left and Cheers to the right for the pair.  Abbie sang beautifully and her speeches crystal clear.  Sarah by now is well versed in playing the marvellous baddie and gave as expected, a seasoned performance – sterling work!

Doing a huge 360 on his previous panto roles, Jack Pike shows his versatility this year as the all-singing, all-shiny, Mirror Mirror.  It would have been nice if the part had been expanded to give him a little more to do – it’s always a pleasure to see Jack perform on stage.

Shirley Mclean (Muddles) and Eric Finlay (Nora Virus) provide the silliness as the comic and dame, respectively. They served us some excellent slapstick and I shall in time, forgive that Eric Finlay for taking aim at the “Lad From Flimby” with a Water Pistol! **

Sticking to tradition of using a Principal Boy and Girl, we were treated to a well-rounded performance from Emily Houghton as the dashing Prince Charles (who came armed with an unexpected Cher song in his repertoire!) and Caylee Cunningham as the fairest of them all – Snow White.  Caylee sang beautifully but I felt her dialogue needed a little more pace to keep the tempo of her scenes flowing.

He may indeed only be a Junior member, but I thought Ethan Watson more than held his own amongst the experienced principal line up as the Queens Henchman, Heinrich. Well done, Ethan!

It wouldn’t be Snow White without her magnificent seven. Whilst the seven on display were a little taller than perhaps the title suggests, the juniors worked brilliantly as a group, led by the super-confident Sarg,  Harry Basnett.  For what it’s worth, I was delighted to hear you’d cleared the use of Heigh Ho – it was a welcome surprise since many companies do away with it.  The audience love it and never get tired of it (though I’m sure after three months of rehearsals, perhaps the cast would disagree!)

I commend the cast for mounting a great production using a slightly wishy-washy script as their starting point. The plot felt rushed at times and I longed for more comedy.  I have seen each of the principals before many times and know exactly what they are capable of when it comes to delivering comedy, so I just wished that there was a bit more meat on the bone for them to get their teeth into.

Leading the production was Kimberley Hazzard as Director, with Choreography by Aimee Rance and Adam MacCreedy.  The Choreography was strong throughout with lots of various styles and techniques used to keep each routine fresh.   I confess I did get a little agitated whilst the principals kept leaving the stage to go out amongst the audience for extended periods of time during their production numbers. We waited until Act Two to hear Sarah nail ‘Killer Queen’ - it was a shame we missed sight of her for most of it.

Musical Director Mark Hazzard worked his magic once again with the ensemble singing which I observed and enjoyed on numerous occasions throughout the show.  I know too well in the lead up to starting rehearsals - that feeling where you think you’ve considered every song ever written and you’ve still not found ‘the one’… but I tip my hat to the production team for great song choices both well-known, and the more obscure.

The sound mix was good, both well-tuned and balanced; and whilst a few less blackouts may have helped the overall flow of the piece, the lighting design complemented the different scenes very nicely. I think I spotted the content of the LED Screen dimming to reflect the lighting state during one section too– a small touch but makes a huge difference).   

I was told the costumes were a mixture of in-house and hired stock, well done to the wardrobe team for the building and maintenance of these, everything was top-notch and the Finale costumes were stunning.

Thank you WADAMS for ending the 2023 season in style, and for three terrific productions this year.

I hope the remaining panto performances went fantastically well and was well received by your audiences both children and adults alike – that is after all who we do all this for! 

A Happy New Year to all, and I look forward to the magical roster of shows you have lined up for 2024.
 

**he missed.  Better luck next time!

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