Snow White & the Seven Dwarves

Many thanks to Preston Musical Comedy Society for inviting me to see their annual pantomime production on Saturday 9th December 2023 at the Preston Playhouse. This year, they presented the story of Snow White & the Seven Dwarves & I’ll go in sharp at the forefront, they delivered an exemplary production from start to finish. 

The panto was directed by Kirsty Chapman who delivered a seamless production with everything one would expect from both the story & a pantomime. Each scene was filled to its maximum with puns, animation, charm & whit & the pace of the production was consistently maintained which kept all the younger audience members engaged & chanting along with the audience involvement as expected. There was great use of the stock characterisations as well as some detailed additions which added to the nostalgia and humour.  

Choreography was undertaken by Anne Arkwright who utilised the skill and talent of the cast. The choreography looked as though the members of the cast knew what they were doing, at times some of the circular patterns got a little bumpy, but this is minor, & all the musical numbers were enhanced by the energised & stylised movement created for them. I thought the choreography for the trio love song ‘I Want to be with You’ where Muddles & Prince Rupert were literally shoving each other of the wall for the love song with Snow White was comedic genius. 

The Musical Director was Craig Smith who played keys & let a 3-piece band. Each song was delivered well by the cast vocally & the band as backing & there was great blend throughout the production. What was special for me was the ad lib injection of sound effects Craig added into the production, such as bloopers of missed puns and ornaments to add an additional level of comedy to the work. Craig was always on the ball ready to respond to the audience’s take on the happenings onstage which added to the energy & high dynamics of the production. 

Set & lighting design were impeccable, using a full breadth LCD screen upstage to animate the entire production. This cartoon like effect was perfect for the feel on the Disney like pantomime & enabled the full use of the stage space to be utilised. Trucks and props were brought on as appropriate to further add dimension & logistics to the scenes. There was also used of multiple painted front drops which allowed for front of stage scenes to happen whilst scene changes were being made. Costumes were detailed & effective & most of the cast had multiple costume changes, which modified the aesthetic which added to the animation & engagement of the younger members of the audience. 

Now to the cast, as a holistic statement, there was a great variety in characterisations, all of which provide dimensionality & intrigue to the performance. All the cast provided high energy performances & they all worked together as an entire unit throughout the piece.  

Snow White was played by Amy Christmas who gave a delightful performance from start to finish. She played the part with grace & innocence and am sure that the little girls in the audience were suspended in the belief she was the real Snow White from the movies! She sang a couple of solo numbers and duets which were vocally stunning, showcasing her versatility. 

Prince Rupert was played by Neil McKnight who portrayed this character as a hammy version of the classic handsome pantomime prince. He used the overacting style to draw additional laughs from the audience & this was a nice contrast to the more naturally played Snow White. I was impressed with Neil’s vocal tone, especially at the higher end of his chest register.  

Queen DeVilla was played by Kate Parkes who was a delight to watch from start to finish. Full of menacing idiosyncratic gestures & mannerisms, used great use on rhythm, pitch & tone to ensure every phrase of speech was articulated to bring out the most demonic inflections. Great physicality & the acting through song for her solo moments were second to none.  

Ramsbottom, Queen Devilla’s wing man, was played by Jake Pulley who gave this role a flamboyant campness which further enriched the cast. I was impressed by his sustained lisp and pronunciations of “R” for “W” akin to Jonathan Ross. He provided great facial reactions which were highly animated and readable by the audience members, enabling the audience to be on his side rather than associated with the Evil Queen. 

Spik & Span, a comedic double act who were henchmen of the Evil Queen were played by Jack Barratt & John Gordon Lane. This pair provided great contrasting characterisations Spik came across as top of his regiment, trying to coordinate the left, right footstep of the pair, and Span who quite simply could not grasp the concept but made gallant effort to try his very best. Together, they won over the audience with their slapstick antics. 

The Dame, Nurse Nelly was played by Phillip Tomlinson who owned every part of the production he was on for, radiating charisma & living entirely in the moment, responding with ad libs to any mishap or mayhem which occurred. Almost every line of dialogue contained a pun or inuendo & Phillip had every member of the audience on his side. 

Muddles, the Jester character was played by Jack Price who again was full of wit & charm. He created a good characterisation with lots of audience engagement & I was in awe of the amount of free-flowing dad joke style one liners throughout his performances, which I am pretty sure most were impromptu! 

Fairy Platinum and Fairy Liquid, the fairy double act was played by Hattie Pridmore & Eli-Mai Waite. This pair were a joy to watch with Fairy Platinum exuberating all the grace and flow expected of the pantomime fairy, and Fairy Liquid, the apprentice, a haphazard & clumsy fairy in the making. I particularly enjoyed the wand for Fairy Liquid, which was quite literally a blue peter style Fairy Liquid detergent bottle pimped up on a crooked stick! 

Magic Mirror was played by Leigh-Hannah Phillips who was impressively animated into the LED backdrop & CGI animation. To enable this to happen, I’m pretty sure this character animation was prerecorded rather than live streamed, but nonetheless, a solid and stern rendition of the Mirror on the Wall was performed. 

The Dwarfs & ensemble performers were Hannah Riordan, Dee Walker, Stephen Hall, Cerys Howells, Aimee Walton, Leigh-Hannah Phillips & Lauren Twist who added great annimation to the ensemble scenes & choreography & did a great job at manipulating the Avenue Q style puppets whilst playing the dwarves. I loved how the dwarves' names were altered slightly from the Disney story, but each of the character traits were recreated by the players vocally & physically with the puppets. 

Finishing the cast were the featuring dancers from Carol Mays Academy as the Junior Chorus. This group ensured the technical choreography was delivered which enhanced the production massively & they added great energy to the show. 

Thanks again to Preston Musical Comedy for the invitation to come & review this production & I am looking forward to next years’ season.

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