This is easily the biggest, brightest and boldest pantomime to be seen at The Theatre Royal St. Helens since this particular reviewer has been seeing them there. Regal Entertainments have outdone themselves this time, bringing a touch of Barnum and Bailey to the traditional tale of Goldilocks.
The setting is a circus, where Goldilocks (Olivia Sloyan), Silly Billy (Scott Gallagher), and Ringmaster (David Tag), all work for circus owner Dame Gertie (David Phipps Davis). However, things are not all well for their circus, they are in debt and in danger of closing down; moreover there is a rival circus in town, owned by the evil Baron Von Vippemall (Timothy Lucas), and his propensity and love of whipping and generally being cruel to children and animals! His three talking and dancing bears have had enough and escaped, and of course, go to join Dame Gerie's circus, and of course (because this is panto), everyone gets to live happily ever after. It's not the traditional story of the The Three Bears (although a short sequence of the most famous moment from that tale, when Goldilocks tries the chairs, porridge and beds of the bears is shoehorned in); neither is it really a traditional panto in many ways too.. but with the emphasis firmly on fun, entertainment, and wow factor, one can forgive the company for not including many of pantomime's traditional routines.
What they did do however (and I haven't seen this one performed in any other panto so far this season!), is have a precious object left at the side of the stage and ask the audience to shout if they see anyone try to steal it. On this occasion it was Silly Billy leaving a pot of money, but the significance of and even the story behind that pot of money got lost in the melee somewhere never to resurface.
Other traditional panto repartee came in the form of Silly Billy (Scott Gallagher), who worked the audience with accomplished ease. [although I did think the water gun sequence was a little more than simple fun... it was actually quite malicious], and Dame Gertie (David Phipps Davis), who made for a rather 'straight' panto dame, not at all OTT, and neither really effeminate nor truly butch, but a very personable and likeable dame nevertheless with a lovely singing voice. [I loved his interpretation of 'Nobody Does It Like Me']. We were treated to only two "yes it is / no it isn'ts" the whole evening, no "behind yous", no real panto set pieces to speak of, and the songsheet turned out to be a football chant "Sweet Caroline", whereby the section of audience to win the singing competition (judged by the MD), would receive a share of half a million pounds. We felt cheated, since, although we really did not believe that this would be true, we did think that some sort of prize - whether real or comedic - would have been forthcoming, but it wasn't. So why promise a prize in the first place then?
What we did have, however, was a whole lot of circus magic. Jenna Sian O'Hara, when not wearing her 'Baby Bear' costume, showed her skill at aerial silks and hoop (something I have never seen in a panto before!), and we all enjoyed the pyrotechnics, fireworks, and full company songs such as 'Join The Circus' and 'No Business Like Showbusiness'.
In general I don't think there was quite enough interaction with the audience, especially in the second act; and although the idea of having a "Germanic" baddy with a name like Vippemall, was a good one; Timothy Lucas's accent / pronunication was unfortunately so poor that I couldn't understand much of what he was saying; and not one of us got the "pun" of his name with the fact that he liked to 'whip them all'. Olivia Sloyan was the prefect Goldilocks; traditional panto 'beauty', pretty, twee, goody-goody, and all the audience loved her, whilst Hollyoaks's David Tag provided the adult sex factor for the middle-aged mums in the audience. The three bears (Harry Moore, Chantal Amber-Rose, and Jemma Sian O'Hara) worked well in their bear suits, but really were only a side-line to the main story, not featuring very much, and really could and should have had much more to do considering they are in the show's title! [perhaps a teddy bears' picnic with the audience?]
The SFX and lighting used throughout was creative and interesting; however the sound levels were far too high. The auditorium music used for pre-show and the interval was not background music in any way; and once the show started it was simply ear-piercingly loud continually. I did not have any ear defenders with me sadly, and so spent the entire show with my fingers frimly in both ears, and could still hear everything clearly. Why do theatre shows need to be so loud??! Louder does not equal better!
St. Helens's best panto yet.. full of pizzazz, fun, and pantotastic costumes, colourful sets, songs and dances; suitable for children of all ages!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 17.12.21
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