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It’s
panto season again. Oh yes it is! A long tradition in many British families including
my own, is the annual Christmastide trip to a local pantomime. It just isn’t
Christmas until we’ve had our fix of slapstick comedy in the jolly world of
Pantoland.
This year's Pantoland is set
in the aptly named Chucklemore in the form of childrens classic “Jack And The
Beanstalk”. With a cast and of fifteen and a live band of five; set against a
glittery backdrop and greenery aplenty, the audience participation is mandatory
from the word go. We meet Jack and his down-on-her-luck Mother Dame Trot
(Damian Williams - now on his 15th panto!) who decides to use “modern
technology” in the form of a drone to find love and before we even get caught
up in the story, cue hilarious audience embarrassment as the drone flies out
zooming in on poor unsuspecting middle aged men, before asking the Drone in an
X Factor style to decide if the poor fella is a “yay” or a “nay"! Choosing the third person it selected, “Chris”
(some poor “unsuspecting audience member”) is then told to shout out
compliments whenever Dame Trot comes on stage and asks “Chris” for input…cue
lots of raucous laughter from the audience each time. But soon enough Dame Trot's quest to find love
is almost all but forgotten as we meet Billy, Jess, Charlie, Jack,
Delilah the Cow and Fairy Sugarsnap and learn that the entire village of
Chucklemore is at risk of global disaster from evil Villain Luke Backinanger -
an X Factor/talent show reject who only ever wanted to be in a boy band.
Armed
with his latest invention “Greta” (Thunberg inspired) - an hilarious weather
changing machine that later features one of the best panto scenes I’ve ever
witnessed, but I’m not going to give any spoilers away, just watch out for
that scene! - wants to threaten the economic environment of the sunny happy Chucklemore.
Meanwhile business is slow for the poor Trot family and their dairy is forced
with closure. To raise some funds for
Dame Trot's next venture - a Dog Training Centre - along with CBBC's very own
Waffle The Dog, Dame Trot gives us a demonstration of what sort of tricks she
can teach an old dog, before sending Jack off to sell their last cow Delilah.
Damian Williams always manages to steal the show in each years' pantos and this
year is no exception. Yes there’s big names such as Corrie’s Wendi Peters as
the Fairy, Sheffield’s own answer to Paul Potts - Maxwell Thorpe as Charlie
Trot (it’s worth the ticket price alone to hear his mesmerising operatic tones
as he belts out his debut single “Believe” which he’s donating all profits from
to Sheffield Children’s Hospital, and Boardwalk Empire’s Marc Pickering as the
Villain; Williams is always the one who has the audience captive from start
to finish and packs the best punchlines. We all know the story of Jack And The
Beanstalk (if not - have you been living under a rock?!), so I won’t focus on
that too much, but a spoiler alert is that we rarely get to see the giant in
any production of this classic fairytale, or if we do it’s just a foot etc etc,
but this production gives us not one but two full size giants!
The costumes - particularly the ever-bonkers
many different costume changes of Dame Trot, are spectacular and with comedy
favourite moments such as the rendition of Monty Python’s “Always Look On The
Bright Side (Of Life)”, which when asking if it would work to rid Chucklemore of
zombies, Dame Trot replied “well it has worked for the last fifteen years!” It’s
not a Sheffield panto without this comedy gold sketch, and their ain’t no panto
like a Sheffield Theatres panto.
Pickering's
villain Luke Backinanger is described as having “a Middle Eastern European
accent as not to offend anyone” has the habit of sounding like Austin Powers
nemesis Doctor Evil at times but then just slipping in and out of the voice
throughout making his character more hilarious than scary. Wendi Peters is
perfection and as sweet as the name Fairy Sugarsnap suggests, the added gag of
the Corrie theme tune opening few bars whenever she entered the stage. Waffle
the Dog just adds that extra warm feel to it (just what we need at this time of
year) - there’s just something about animals in live shows that has the
audience enchanted - and Waffle wowed us with some great skills and tricks.
Jack And The Beanstalk is the perfect ingredient for the Christmas season - with
just the right amount of sparkle and sprinkles of magic to warm even the
coldest hearts this season. A real must
see! Running until 3rd January 2023,
this is the only thing you need to ask Father Christmas for this year. Treat the family to this festive season, with
the weather machine, dancing dog and operatic vocals of Sheffield’s own Maxwell
Thorpe - there really is something for everyone!
Reviewer - Lottie Davis-Browne
on - 6.12.22
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