New Mills Art Theatre traditionally buck the festive trend by staging their annual pantomime in February, which is perhaps a sound marketing decision but also enables more input from everyone with this being a quieter time of year. This was unquestionably a ‘traditional’ pantomime in format and presentation but there were ways in which New Mill Arts Theatre dared to be, refreshingly, a little different.
Most obviously is the subject matter. The vast majority of pantos are simply a take on one of about six or seven stalwarts such as ‘Cinderella’ or ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Following on from ‘Robinson Crusoe And The Pirates’ last year, New Mills have again chosen a distinctly lesser-performed theme. Then there is the music. Most panto productions opt for contemporary pop songs but the numbers with this show were typically from 60’s musicals, notably ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ but even ‘Sweet Charity’ (hardly about children’s themes) and the selections were imaginative. The inclusion of ‘You’re My Little Coochie Face’ for example was inspired, as was Monty Python’s ‘Lumberjack Song’ (even if the last verse was understandably omitted).
There was a tremendous variation across the age ranges in the 50-plus strong cast giving an authentic feeling of community to the village of Munchen Luncheon and a plethora of vibrant and impressive costumes creating a powerful visual spectacle. Aside from a very impressive gingerbread house, there was very little staging but this was compensated for with very high-quality back-drops with the large stage area was used to good effect for quality dance routines and convincing crowd scenes. The front boxes were also used to good effect and there was a good mix of having a full stage and scenes involving just two or three actors.
In terms of the ‘traditional elements’ of panto, everything you might expect was here from the ‘oh yes it is’ routines to an audience sing-a-long, plenty of weak puns plus a few jokes aimed more at adults. However, even allowing that we are in a time when child protection is given ever-increasing attention, it came as something of a shock to see the Witch being given a CRB check; some of the humour was certainly a little edgy.
All the cast seemed to be enjoying themselves and this was reciprocated by a very enthusiastic audience. It’s difficult to single out specific performances from a large and very able cast. There was a strong sense of a team performance with no one actor being dominant, unlike certain other pantos. It was encouraging to see ample space made for even the very youngest and smallest of the cast to shine; memorable instances being a little boy who repeatedly blew his horn, able to improvise after it was forcibly removed and a tiny girl who at first was unable to find a place in a conga dance but eventually flourished.
Special mention must be made of the witch’s make-up which was like something out of The Wizard Of Oz and truly villainous. The blue look to the Wood Fairy was also impressive and there were numerous other attentions to detail such as the head-dresses of showgirls in the circus and the German folk costume of Hansel. All of this combined to create a professional look to a very slick and well-delivered production. Considerable thought had clearly been put into every aspect of this production and New Mills Art Theatre can claim to have one of the best panto’s across the region; a very enjoyable and original production of an unusual theme to a familiar genre.
Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 8/2/20
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