DICK WHITTINGTON Royal Theatre, Northampton to 19 January
Northampton
DICK WHITTINGTON
by Vilma Hollingbery
Royal Theatre To 19 January 2001
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS 01604 624811
Review Timothy Ramsden 10 December
Old hands on deck keep SS Christmas Panto underway in Northampton.This is just like they used to do 'em: former Royal Theatre artistic director Michael Napier-Brown returns to produce his wife Vilma Hollingbery's panto script in Northampton-honoured fashion.
There's a generous amount of story, travelling widely in time and place. The jazzy Kit-Kat Bar is several centuries on from picture-frame old London, while the voyage to Morocco, undertaken under no plot necessity whatsoever, allows for an underwater black-light fish show and a gorgeous second act palace setting. Designer Ray Lett is a star of this show. And his sets are seen to full advantage under Paul Dennant's blaze of lights.
Hollingbery's script is respectful of young audiences; without any 'that's one for the mummies and daddies' lines, thank goodness, though I'm not sure references to Dorothy Lamour and The Road to Morocco raise many resonances with young audiences these days. A fair whack of the puns fall flat between the laughter and groan regions. But it's clear who's to be supported and who denied support (principally Nigel Parkes-Davies' villainously bent-backed, masked King Rat). And who could withhold vocal support from Caroline Fitzgerald's confident, smiling Lord Mayor in the making?
Emma Barron occupies her cuddly fur-coated catsuit affectionately while Michael Shaw is a ripe old dame. Roger Butcher's Sultan has a wife-weary attitude to life, expressed with a bearded authority that is amply aided in its political uncorrectness by the script.
At times situations offer opportunities for more comic business, but this show takes the sensible line of reining in the length, doing its set pieces and moving the story forward. Row upon row of the primary school audience sat silent, leaping into attentive life when required to support, suggest or singalong.
Dick Whittington: Caroline Fitzgerald
Tom the Cat: Ema Barron
Fairy Bowbells: Vicki Hopps
King Rat: Nigel Parkes-Davies
Alderman Fitzwarren: Nicholas Glasson
Alice Fitzwarren: Nicola Ball
Mary Mary: Charlotte Eaton
Idle Jack: Andrew Pollard
Sarah the Cook: Michael Shaw
Sultan of Morocco: Roger Butcher
Captain Rat/Gorilla: Aimee Green/Iain McLeod
Dancers: Emily Allen, Natalie Barker, Mikaela Fowkes, Lucy Gribble, Samantha Pollitt, Victoria Yates/Charlotte Dalton, Shona Eyre, Abigail Foster, Kayleigh Meek, Billie Kay Payne, Carly Shatford.
Director: Michael Napier Brown
Musical Director: Maurice Merry
Choreographer: Lisa Cottrell
Designer: Ray Lett
Lighting: Paul Dennant
Costume: Alison Heffernan
2001-12-12 11:12:45