Wizard of Oz The Pantomime

The sets built in house looked brilliant and good use was made of the tabs so as to minimise the times between scenes. The props were great and the costumes looked fabulous. The lighting and sound had no issues and worked well complimenting the scenes. The songs were performed to backing tracks.

 

The direction worked well by Carole Griffiths who also had a major part of The Cowardly Lion. It is evident how much fun this group have in rehearsals as this filters through the performances. Great casting and fast fun filled performances don’t happen by accident and are down to a hard working director.

 

The choreography was great and suited the songs and cast. The chorus and cast were smiling and looking like they were enjoying themselves. Congratulations to Samantha on her hard work with the choreography

 

Rachael Pearson was great with gorgeous vocals. Her dance moves and acting showed the hard work put in by this company as she led the full company numbers really well. “You Got a Friend in Me” was great with Jane who played the Scarecrow.

 

Jane Pearson was great as Hay Boy/Scarecrow with a super accent and great scarecrow moves and ad libbed well when needed, never being thrown even by the kids on stage or those from the audience.

 

Nathan Simpson did a fabulous job as Metal Mickey/Tin Man with great stage presence and vocals. “Anyone who had a Heart” was a great number.  Again his moves as the Tin Man were great.

 

Rory/Cowardly Lion was brilliantly played by Carole Griffiths who also directed the pantomime. Carole has great comic timing and this was superbly portrayed as the Lion. All the song choices were great and suited the characters well.

 

Samantha Martin played Auntie Em and Glinda very well and also choreographed the show. The song “Loathing” from Wicked was a great choice for the two witches to duet on and both delivered well.

 

Maureen Copp was great as The Wicked Witch and Mrs Hopkins with lots of boo’s from the audience on her entrance and exits. She was never out of character and her make up looked great too. Her sidekick Fleshcreep played by Lauren Copp was extremely funny and played the idiot well which the audience loved.

 

The final cast member was Tony Mooney as The Gatekeeper, Uncle Henry, the Wizard and the Ghost! Tony put in good performances in all these roles and ad libbed a few times which the other cast members picked up on and became a running joke which the audience enjoyed.

 

The song choices were really good and suited the scene or the characters and were performed well. I like that shortened versions were used.   The direction worked well with a few sightline issues but I was on the end of the row. There was a full house on the night I was in and they had very good audience numbers all week. The audience including myself fully appreciated the production. Well done to everyone involved  both on and off stage.

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