BUZZ MAG Thurs 2 Dec 2010The Stage. Published Monday 6 December 2010 at 17:48 by Jon Holliday
Know your audience - that is the tried and tested mantra. And Hiss & Boo has proved over the years that it knows just how to please Riverfront’s panto patrons.
Richard Gauntlett again directs his own script in this fifth offering of seasonal entertainment, which is well up to the standard set in previous years. So it is catchy songs, energetic dancing, colourful costumes and scenery, lots of technical effects, slapstick, jokes aplenty, local references and audience participation.
Aled Powys Williams uses his fine singing voice to pleasing effect in the title role - his duet on the magic flying carpet with Princess Badroulbador (the appealing Erin Richards) being a highlight of this all the family show. Comedy is well handled by two popular local favourites - the ever jovial Mark James as Wishee Washee and the irrepressible Lee Mengo as Widow Twankey.
Richard Elis dominates as the powerful, flamboyant Abanazar. James Roberts, Gustav Lundstrom and Jamie Anderson are suitably physical as Chinese Keystone Kops, with satisfying support from the choreographer Sarah Cortez as a cute Genie of the Lamp, Emma Goodwin as Princess So Shy and Anthony Osborne as a mild-mannered Emperor. Musical direction is by Rob Mitchell.
★★★★★
Words: Kirsty Pearson
Getting all togged up, ready to face the snow in a mission to get to the Riverfront Theatre in Newport, for this year’s Pantomime, Aladdin, it couldn’t have felt more like Christmas.
The Riverfront Theatre is slap bang in the centre of Newport, and very easy to get to. A popular venue with a family friendly welcome, they were obviously anticpating a lot of children; little activity packs were provided to keep the little ones entertained before the show got started.
The pantomime itself was fantastic. Full of customary panto jokes, a few adult jokes for the parents and of course a great dollop of “its behind you”, and “oh yes we are”. After all, what would panto be without it? The story of Aladdin was one which we were all familiar with. A few little twists and turns kept us guessing and there was even a display from the Red Devils, two men with poles (yes, poles) and a flying carpet!
Mark James played a blinder as Wishee Washee and kept the youngsters, and not so young, giggling at his silly antics throughout. Lee Mengo was hilarious as the infamous Window Twanky ensuring the kitsch star of panto shone brightly. Erin Richards played the Princess Baldroubadour, and Aladdin was played by Aled Powys Williams, both had great voices and nearly took the roof off with a string of catchy songs – a pair matched in panto heaven.
Richard Elis played the marvellously evil Abanazar who charged just the right amount of nastiness, without being too scary. We all had great fun giving him a great big boo and hiss. I have to say, the one thing that stood out for me was the number of great Welsh performers on stage. Yes, I know we’re in Wales, but that isn’t always the case with the great Christmas pantomimes. It was great to hear big Welsh voices filling the theatre. We finished the evening with a good old sing song which made us just as excited as the kids around us.
From the mouth of a six-year-old: “This is the best show ever; it’s awesome!” Enough said.
From just £5 a ticket, this is a fabulous festive family treat.
by Andy Howells, 3 December 2010
It's official – panto season has arrived in Newport! Aladdin and his friends, Wishee Washee, Widow Twankey and big bad uncle Abanazar have taken the magic carpet from Peking to Newport Riverfront and are entertaining audiences between now and January 3rd.
Aladdin (played by Only Men Aloud’s Aled Powys Williams) is a lovely boy with a secret; he leads a double life as a Masked Avenger. However he has a formidable enemy, evil Abanazar (Richard Elis) who wants control of a magic lamp and to reign over Peking with the beautiful Princess Baldroubadour (Erin Richards).
Abanazar finds his plans constantly thwarted by Aladdin, Widow Twankey (Lee Mengo) and Wishee Washee (Mark James). So sets about hatching a plan to dispose of all three by imprisoning them in a cave, needless to say hilarious results ensue!
There’s much to be enjoyed by everyone of all ages in this excellent production from funny visual effects to memorable musical numbers.. Mark James and Lee Mengo’s slapstick humour never fails to entertain while Sarah Cortez is undoubtedly the most glamorous genie to descend from Aladdin’s lamp!
Aled Powys Williams makes many female hearts flutter with his solo singing spots while Princess Erin Richards adds some glitter to the proceedings along with her cohort the multi talented Emma Goodwin.
Stealing the show however is the villain of the piece, Abanazar – former EastEnders actor Richard Elis. Elis strikes a unique balance of wild wicked and Welsh in his portrayal of the bad guy to a point the children love hating him. His performance is a joy to watch!
Mention must also go to the acrobatic talents of James Roberts and Gustav Lundstrom who mesmerized many in their Poles Apart sequence.
With songs spanning many era’s from rock n roll to musicals, mixed with spectacular dance routines featuring talented children from many local groups and theatres Aladdin is not a production to be missed. Indeed, when you venture out into the cold December evenings to see it – it will truly warm your heart this Christmas!
Sleeping Beauty - Corn Exchange, Newbury pictures
By Phil Willmott
The Corn Exchange and Hiss and Boo
Corn Exchange, Newbury
The British Theatre Guide - Review by Robin Strapp (2010)
It's that time of year again when panto takes to the stage in Newbury and once again, in Sleeping Beauty, the Corn Exchange and Hiss and Boo have created a cracker of a show.
Many of the cast return from last year's Puss in Boots and they obviously have an empathy with each other that allowed them to thoroughly enjoy their performances.
Written and directed by Phil Willmott and starring the excellent comedy duo Claire Plested as Princess Chardonnay and Adam Brown as King Jeremy, whose rapport with audience was delightful with wonderful comedy timing, they really made the show.
This was a jaunty, high spirited and fun filled panto with something for everyone from toddler to granny.
Princess Chardonnay is looking for a frog to turn into a Prince. The King and Queen are planning a royal christening if only the bumbling Billy Bumpkin (Mathew Grace) can deliver the invitations to the right people.
The Royal parents are not coping well and they desperately need someone to look after the baby. So Nanny McBubbles is summoned thanks to the 'wishogram' machine and comes to the rescue.
Ian Mowat was outstanding as the 'dame' McBubbles - a total delight to watch, wearing the most outrageous costumes including a gingham dress that contained a whole picnic. Wonderful stuff.
Billy Bumpkin fails to deliver the invitation to the evil Fairy Acid Drop, a deliciously nasty performance by Katherine Hare, who feels she has been insulted.
She plots her revenge together with her spiteful sprite Spindle (Joe Wicks) and casts a spell on Princess Rose (Joanna Woodward). She falls in love with the magazine star Prince Sebastian (Reeda Harris) and a wedding is planned.
But Princess Rose is lured to the north tower and pricks her finger on a spindle. Fairy Cup Cake (Lindsay Scigliano) manages to change the curse and so they all fall asleep for a hundred years. But all works out well in the end.
There is oodles of audience participation, a fabulous Glee first act finale, a hilarious ballet scene, an uproarious rendition of the twelve days of Christmas, energetic choreography and a vibrant musical score that unfortunately on the press night overwhelmed some the singing.
The colourful set is striking with a revolve that ensures continuity which was especially effective in showing Rose growing up from a child to adult. Splendidly lit by Guy Dickens with sparkling special effects, this was a panto that had all the right ingredients to start celebrating the Christmas season - "Oh yes it was! " - and the enthusiastic audience loved it.
NEWBURY TODAY
A right royal panto
Newbury's own beauty bags herself a prince, oh yes she does... By Eddie van der Walt, Reporter Thu, December 09 2010
THE BEST thing about having nephews are that they provide the perfect partners for those juvenile things you just can’t do on your own, like going to see the pantomime at the Corn Exchange in Newbury. This year’s production is once again produced by Hiss and Boo, but the only boos in this gloriously colourful musical interpretation of Sleeping Beauty are for the wicked fairy and sprite, because a triumph it certain is. (OOOoooooh, yes it is!)
Adam Brown, who recently won the part of Ori the dwarf in the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, is on stage again with his comedy partner Clare Plested.
This year he plays a frog prince, who through an unfortunate kissing accident was only partially transformed. Which suits him, really, he does have a distinctly froggish voice.
Plested, in her Essex interpretation of the Queen Chardonnay, is marvellous. Which is also true for her rapport with the audience, twisting them around her finger at a whim and coaxing out the big roars of response that make pantomime so much fun. However, the show certainly is stolen, as it should be, by the villains, the evil sprite (Joseph Wicks), whose over-the-top German accent, and snake-like elegance illicit immediate antagonism and the equally evil Fairy Acid Drop (Katherine Hare). Spare a thought, though, for Nanny McBubbles (Ian Mowatt). It can’t be fun getting dressed up like Lady Gaga, and any man who can do a split while dressed as a cupcake (or was that a tart?) certainly has my respect.
The prince and princess, played by Reeda Harris and Joanna Woodward were rock solid and the lovable fool (Matthew Grace) proved equally entertaining.
Local references abound, with the king having distinctly good taste in newspapers. I did think the musical description of the Royal Berkshire girls (to the tune of Katy Perry’s California Girls), however, was stretching the imagination a bit too far given the current weather. But at the end of the night, once good has triumphed, the only Sleeping Beautys we were left with were the exhausted little people we took there in the first place.
So if you haven’t got your own, do what I did and borrow a nephew, because this is too much fun to miss.
... nowhere do pantogoers react more enthusiastically and vociferously to events on stage than they do at this address. By Giles Woodforde, 15 December 2010
This year Sleeping Beauty is on offer, in a new version written and directed by Phil Willmott. As the curtain rises, Princess Chardonnay (Clare Plested) is having trouble finding a boyfriend — could her problem be that she doesn’t appear to come from quite the most aristocratic of social backgrounds? In desperation she kisses a frog (Adam Brown). “Yuk,” cries the audience. But this is no ordinary frog — frogs don’t normally wear sparkly silver codpieces. He’s transformed into King Jeremy, marries Chardonnay, and before long Princess Rose (Joanna Woodward) appears.
Enter Nanny McBubbles (Ian Mowat), who is ace at firing water pistols into the audience. “Would you like to sing?” she cries, following that up with: “Am I good looking?” “Yes, yes, no, no,” come the respective replies, quick as a flash. Mowat, along with several other cast members, was in last year’s Corn Exchange Puss in Boots, and knows exactly how to work a Newbury audience. Well-upholstered Nanny’s greatest moment comes in a hilarious dance routine featuring a giant beach ball, which miraculously never quite falls to the ground. The reference to a certain robust contestant in Strictly Come Dancing is hard to miss.
There must be baddies too, and they come in the form of leather-clad evil sprite Spindle (Joe Wicks), and the aptly named Fairy Acid Drop (Katherine Hare), who hopes to finish the Princess off with a giant, poisoned pin. All ends happily, of course, in this energetic panto, which flagged only when a couple of slow ballads outstayed their welcome. But against that, the Lady Gaga impression went down a real treat.
Queen's - Barnstaple pictures
The Stage - Published Monday 13 December 2010 at 11:21 by Anne Broom
A range of stylish footwear from sparkling stilettos to golden boots, accessorising a dozen outrageous costumes, gives Antony Stuart-Hicks’s excellent Widow Twankey a head-start in the fashion stakes. He’s run a close second by David Phipps-Davis as dastardly larger-than-life Abanazar in glittering turban and cloak, who sports a remarkable pair of red platform boots.
This is fast-paced family fun in the best pantomime traditions with strong principals, great young dancers and tight comedy. Scenes are well-focused with pretty effects while Vivienne McMaster’s glittering Genie of the Lamp flies across stage in spectacular fashion at every opportunity.
Writer and director John David injects freshness into the tale of Old Peking, an enchanting symbolic re-telling of the legend of the Willow Pattern adding a classical touch. Mark Reeves’s personable Wishee Washee establishes instant rapport with audiences, comedy gags and local allusions played with huge fun.
But success is achieved through great team-work. David Phipps-Davis uses his fine voice as a commanding baddie while Stuart-Hicks, a strong traditional dame, handles comedy stage business with superb timing - the mangle a source of endless Laundry fun. Hamilton Lee and Anna Campkin (Aladdin and Princess Baldroubadour) ensure a happy ending, with the Emperor’s (Jonathan Wadey) blessing.
Barnstaple People By A_McCormack Sunday, December 12, 2010
From the moment we stepped into the Aladdin’s Cave front of house at the Queen’s Theatre in Barnstaple it was clear there would be gems aplenty on the first night of this year’s pantomime. Hiss & Boo Company bring this traditional tale of Aladdin and his magic lamp right up to date with Xfactor and I’m a Celebrity references, sing-along pop songs and a wardrobe of fabulous frocks that Cheryl and Dannii could only dream of.
The sparkling cast played to a full house of North Devonians of all ages on Friday night; from four year old Mia who clambered up on stage to help Wishee Washee with his ‘Pants Song’ to the old lady who got a mention for being “111 … oh no, hold on a minute … she’s ‘ill’!”
When David Phipps-Davis as the evil Abanazar stomped onto stage to set the scene with his glittering platform boots and booming ‘mwah ha ha’s we unleashed our hisses and boos remorselessly. I have never known a panto villain elicit such prolonged abuse (praise) from a crowd and on more than one occasion Abanazar was left twiddling his evil thumbs whilst we boooed ourselves out. Phipps-Davis had more than a sinister leer under his cape, his wonderful operatic voice brought tears to my eyes (in a good way).
There ain’t nothing like a dame and Antony Stuart-Hicks as Widow Twankey is a corker! Aladdin’s outrageous washerwoman mum steals the show with her outlandish outfits, each one (of the too many to count) upstaging the last. Twankey certainly had us in the palm of her laundry lathered hands showing real engagement with the audience upstairs and down.
Hooking the plot together was a cheeky Mark Reeves as Wishee Washee, Aladdin’s less than confident brother. A true panto pro, Reeves kept the momentum up with his “Hiya Gang” “Hiya Wishee” routine. And thank you Wishee for the time-honoured tradition of throwing sweeties into the crowd although I didn’t manage to catch one (didn’t you see me jumping up and down like a loonie?)
Aladdin himself is a charmer. Hamilton Lee with his boyish good looks (because he IS boyish and good looking) is a perfect match for Anna Campkin’s pretty Princess Baldroubadour.
There are many magical moments to wow the crowds. Glamorous genie Vivienne McMaster goes airborne and bumbling bobby Merlin Cadogan makes us chuckle but for me the real magic of the show is in the song and dance routines. I don’t want to give too much away but watch out for my favourite scene – a tap dancing Twankey in the laundry! Superb singing voices from the major players and great support from the juvenile cast of local children make this a top class show.
Hall for Cornwall - Truro Sleeping Beauty pictures
HfC panto is a real BeautyPANTO is a strange beast - what other show would you pay good money for bad jokes, forgettable songs, nonsensical storylines and, in Cornwall, no stars? All that and the "thrill" of sitting in an auditorium full of screaming kids.
For some it's hell in drag but for others it's the perfect start to Christmas. Oh yes it is.
Never the biggest fan of panto or Variety of any kind, I must admit to having a soft spot for the annual joint production between the HfC and the Hiss and Boo Company. And since kids have come along I now have an excuse for this guilty pleasure.
Friday night's show was a surprisingly error-free event for an opening night. Any mishaps and messiness were planned to dazzling effect.
The story is to the point - Princess falls in love with wet Prince, evil fairy Carabosse sends Princess Beauty to sleep, while Nurse Mumpsnmeasles and her feckless son Tweedy provide the comedy, and they all live happily ever after. The Hall's panto hasn't had a "name" since the days of Blue Peter's Peter Duncan and tragic CBeebies star Mark Speight, but it doesn't need one.
Superbly directed by Stewart Nicholls and expertly written by Ian Adams - who manages to cram in all the old staples as well as enough Cameron and Clegg jokes to ensure he never collects his pension - the star of the show is the show itself.
Though it would be churlish not to single out Richard Alan and Tweedy for attention - the former is great fun as the "dame" all sauciness and exaggerated South West burr, while Tweedy as "her" son is a genius of physical comedy. His set pieces - including a cleaning scene of which Laurel and Hardy would be proud - brought the house down. The real standout is Julie Hobbs as Carabosse - a tiny frame containing a big talent. She was quite brilliant, lapping up every bit of nastiness as she tried to persuade us she was "gorgeous", while performing the most surreal version of Kylie's Spinning Around ever seen on a UK stage.
Hats off also to John Rawnsley and Valerie Cutko as the king and queen - though their song about destroying the land's spinning wheels was plain bizarre; like Florence and the Machine on acid - Cornwall's own Kate Edney as Sleeping Beauty and the county's dramatic actress Mary Woodvine as the Good Fairy.
With just the right amount of audience participation and song and dance sequences, this is a great show to get you in the festive mood.
As we left Amelie, 7, proclaimed: "That was the best Hall for Cornwall panto yet." Out of the mouths of babes.
Radio St. Austell Bay Sheila Vanloo December 2010
Sleeping Beauty
Hiss & Boo Productions – Hall For Cornwall
Yes, it’s that time of year again – roll out the silly jokes, the good fairy, the evil baddie and the beautiful princess, panto’s back in town! Hiss & Boo continue to mix all the right ingredients with their latest offering ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Aimed directly at the heart of it’s local audience the main characters include Prince Michael of Mousehole and King Colin of Camborne – yes, I know it’s stretching the imagination a bit, but this is panto. Along with the classic jokes and storyline are some familiar faces - Richard Alan reprises his role as Dame, one in which he excels as he camps it up to the max, much loved Mary Woodvine simply sparkles as Fairy Crystal – a more glamorous role than anything she did with Kneehigh and the beauty of the title is Truro girl Kate Edney, who returns to the panto for her second year in the lead role. Julie Hobbs plays a fabulous Carabosse, probably the most beautifully dressed and sexiest evil witch to grace the panto stage this year.
With stunning costumes, jaw dropping set designs, a life size talking frog and an enormous fire breathing dragon, the show storms along at a great pace with the usual large doses of slapstick and audience participation.
Hiss & Boo have chalked up yet another sure fire hit with Sleeping Beauty which runs until Monday 3rd January.