Review: Sleeping Beauty Panto at Richmond Theatre

The best part of Richmond Theatre’s sparkling Sleeping Beauty panto this year, according to my ten-year-old daughter, was the comic rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” by the Dame, the cheeky chappy and the hero, deep into the second half.

“Five toi-let…rolls! Fou-our pots and pans, Three…Two… And a bra that was meant to hold three,” the trio warbled, swapping places at breakneck speed and waving each prop in turn.

My daughter isn’t a bad critic of ATG pantos as she has gone to one every year since she was old enough to walk.

As a pre-schooler she brawled in the aisles with her friends when the romantic bits in act one started to lag. When she grew out of her shyness she went up on stage during the cute audience participation bit, just before the grand finale. These days the children have to sing a verse of “Old Macdonald” to earn their goodie bag, but back then it was just a couple of gentle questions from the cheeky chappy compere.

It was a mild surprise that the Richmond panto, which we went to for the first time this year, followed so exactly the same formula as the New Wimbledon Theatre pantos we usually see.

I conclude that First Family Entertainment has been honing its perfect panto recipe over the years and efficiently imposes it across ATG’s stable of theatres each Christmas.

The characters, the scenes, the structure of the story, follow a pattern. Even the sets and costumed seemed vaguely familiar – surely those white and pink sparkly costumes from the wedding scene cropped up in Wimbledon’s Peter Pan a couple of years ago?

Following a formula takes skill, however, and Richmond’s take was particularly fast and funny this year. Its local-in-jokes were sharp and got lots of laughs, and an unusual amount of thought had gone into crafting the topical asides. Watch out for hugely enjoyable baddie Maureen Lipman’s costume change in the finale.

FFE seems to have stepped back from its big-name overseas celebrity castings this Christmas, and this Sleeping Beauty seemed better balanced for it. The repartee really crackled in the ensemble scenes. Matt Rixon was very sharp as Nursey, the Dame, and his timing was peerless.

The quality of the singing was high, particularly from Tilly Ford as the Lilac Fairy and Tania Newton as the Queen.

No small children escaped their parents to race up and down the darkened aisles during the performance, and this is largely thanks to the fact that pantos are getting shorter, snappier and funnier.

All credit to CBBC presenter Chris Jarvis, who not only directed but also starred as Chester the Jester, the cheeky chappy compere.

It’s a highly enjoyable and professional show. Gone are the days when the dancers came from a local theatrical troupe. With central casting, FFE has imposed the production values of a WestEnd musical.

The productions still managed to keep something of the parochial flavour of a traditional panto, however, and was all the better for it. My only gripe is that the ticket prices are steep for many families.

Book your tickets: atgtickets.com/shows/sleeping-beauty-2016/richmond-theatre

By our Arts Blogger, Jenny Booth
Follow: @culturevult
Visit: mediastarsite.wordpress.com