The traditional village scene that opens most pantomimes takes a very unusual turn at Crawley when the four large boxes that the villagers bring to the town square are assembled, in front of the capacity audience, into a tower from which Stephen Mulhern, as Muddles, appears – thankfully quite whole.
The star of Catchphrase and Britain’s Got More Talent already has a fond place in the hearts of the audience and in no time at all has them eating out of the palm of his hand. With the help of a superbly funny script, and a tremendous cast, he gets the panto off to a flying start, and, from there, it soars even higher!
Lucy Kemp wastes no time extracting all the “hisses” and “boos” that she can as the Evil Queen Ivannah. She not only looks the part, with a wonderful mix of nasty and naughty, but she works well with the Magic Mirror, a video performance by the fantastically deadpan Romesh Ranganathan, and really blasts the roof off with some amazing vocals in numbers like Guns ‘n’ Roses Sweet Child O’ Mine.
Her unwilling Henchman, Herman, a man with a lifelong dream of performing as Freddie Mercury is played, for all the laughs he can get, by Richard Franks. Throughout the show he is more than happy to play stooge to the jokes of the main characters in exchange for the chance to live his dream in Act Two.
Snow White and Prince Charming, Lauren Cocoracchio and Rob Wilshaw, make a lovely couple with crystal clear vocals in their musical numbers, and more than enough long lingering looks to convey their love for one another to even the hardest heart.
Damien Delaney uses many and varied syles for his choreography including some very “thrilleresque” moves for the Queen’s demons, some very nutty routines in a Madness medley and a very balletic sequence for the woodland creatures – all danced by the very talented Ebony Clarke, Harri Nichols, Marianne Phillips, James Revell, Phil Mennell and Jake Maiden together with the chorus of juvenile performers.
Living deep in the woods, Sarge (Ollie Clarke), Loopy (Kain Francis), Cheeky (Blake Lisle), Brains (Jite Ighorodje), Sniffly (Geoffrey Sergison), Brian (Erik Bourne) and the “Fab-U-Lous” Groover (Jamie John) are the magnificant seven dwarfs.
Dominating the stage whenever she appears is the amazing Dame Molly Mop, played (as he describes himself) by “professional fat bloke in a dress”, Michael J Batchelor. With a little help from a “willing volunteer” from the audience (you guessed it, at this performance it was me who was chosen), Molly works through eleven of the most amazing costumes and headresses (made by Michael himself), while keeping the audience in stitches with some brilliant one-liners – quite frequently at my expense!
To stand out from the crowd, a pantomime really needs to have a wow factor but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs doesn’t stop at one! The unbelievably cute woodland creature masks give a wow because they are breathtaking in their accuracy. The medley of songs that replace the more traditional “songsheet” scene also give a wow because, for once, no one has to work to get the audience to join in and the “ghost scene” leaps with both feet into the 21st century by… no, that one you’ll have to check out for yourselves!
You have plenty of time to see this show, as it runs until Sunday 7th January 2018 so, wherever you are in the region, do yourself a huge favour this festive season and get some tickets to see this spectacularly funny, superbly staged, production because Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a giant of a show!
***** Five Stars
