Tezza's Theatre Place

Up at the Palladium, you will find the ultimate in family Christmas entertainment. With a huge budget, huge sets, an orchestra and more stars than there are in the heavens. Yes, it’s panto time and  Goldilocks and the Three Bears  are safely ensconced until January. However, a stone’s throw from the LP, is another panto. It’s smaller, has fewer star names and, as they themselves say, little budget. But going by my visit to the Karma Sanctum Hotel, to see  Jack and His Giant Bigstalk , I think I know which of the two pantos I prefer. In the village of Doggin On the Hill, Dame Trot (Edward Denny) lives with her son Jack (Alex Guersman). Jack is the epitome of a pantomime hero – handsome but a trifle dim. Not the brightest of individuals, he makes up for it by being a loving son to Dame Trot and a wonderful best friend to Daisy the cow (Ben Felton/Alex Reid). He is also a young man who has noticed stirrings in parts of his body and a fluttering in his heart, especially w...

LtoR Emily Cairns, Matthew Kellett & Meriel Cunningham in THE NATIVITY PANTO. Credit Bill Knight. One of the highlights of the festive season is the annual trip to Islington to the King’s Head Theatre for the latest Charles Court Opera Christmas production. This year, CCO present their thirteenth festive boutique pantomime and have decided to pull out all the stops by tackling the story that started it all with  The Nativity Panto . I’m not going to go into too much detail but the story concerns a couple – Joseph (Matthew Kellett) and Mary (Meriel Cunningham) Christmas, who have slightly different goals in life. Joseph is trying to invent a substance that will get his sleigh, pulled by Rudolph the reindeer (Emily Cairns), to fly and Mary wants a baby. It sounds simple enough, but, in the hands of John Savournin (director and scriptwriter) and David Eaton (original songs and Musical Director), a simple tale becomes something spectacular. The addition of a good old pantomim...

Cinderella: A Fairytale Well, it’s pantomime time once more and as excited youngsters head off to the traditional Christmas entertainment, not many of them will give thought to the history of this particular theatrical genre. I mention this, as one of the most popular pantos is also one of the oldest, dating back in one form or another to the story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo around 7 BC, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt. Over 2,000 years later, I found myself heading over to the Jack Studio Theatre in Brockley for the latest version of the story as  Cinderella: A Fairytale  opens for the festive season. Now, this is no ordinary version of the classic story. Young Ella (Molly Byme) is a girl who spends as much of her time as possible in the woods round her house, communicating with the birds that live there, who have become her only friends since the death of her father. Her home life is not great thanks to her stepmother (B...

Mother Goose Cracks One Out I’ve been reviewing just over four news and so far I’ve attended over 700 shows. Not a bad number but, in all that time, I’ve never managed to get to one of the famous Above the Stag pantomimes. However, this year, that is no longer true, as I attended the 2018 offering  Mother Goose Cracks One Out . In the generic northern mill town of Rugburn – Yorkshire side of the Pennines – Mother Goose (Matthew Baldwin) a kind-hearted hairdresser, runs her business assisted by her reluctant but dedicated son Gay Tommy (Liam Woodlands-Mooney). The two of them are very poor because Mother Goose is not only useless with money but is also very generous, giving away haircuts to the needy – which seems to be everyone – and generally being a bit of a soft touch. Her landlord and squire of the town Amos (Christopher Lane) is demanding his rent as he needs the money since his mill is not doing well. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be anyone happy in Rugburn, except mayb...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/191176/jack-and-the-beanstalk-new-wimbledon-theatre-review/ Liam Tamne and Charlotte Gooch – Photo credit Craig Sugden It’s December and for most theatres, that means one thing. For the next six weeks or so, they will be opening their doors twice a day, six days a week to let hordes of happy children – along with some adults – come and experience the magic of live theatre. Yes, its pantomime season and I was lucky enough to get a trip to the New Wimbledon Theatre for the opening of their festive offering  Jack and the Beanstalk . The basic story is that Giant Blunderbore is causing havoc by raising the rent in a small village and driving the villagers into poverty. Life is so bad that Dame Trott (Clive Rowe) is going to have to sell her cow to try and make ends meet and support her two sons, Jack (Liam Tamne) and Barman Al (Al Murray). Jack is upset about selling the cow but he is also distracted as he has met and fallen in love with the b...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/190167/king-tut-a-pyramid-panto-kings-head-theatre/ Walk like Egyptian. Photo William Knight Have you ever tried to explain to someone that isn’t from the UK what a pantomime is and why it is such a part of the Christmas celebration? Obviously, if you are talking to an American, it’s fairly easy. Point at the White House and they will get the concept of pantomime very quickly. Given a conversation I had recently, it’s not that easy to get the concept over. So, my advice is to forget trying to explain and take your interlocutor to the King’s Head where Charles Court opera are putting on their Christmas pantomime  King Tut . Egypt 1922 and explorer Howard Carter (Matt R J Ward) is looking for the tomb of Tutankhamun. His party consists of Lord Conniving (John Savournin/Matthew Kellett) who is financing the expedition, and is attending along with his ward Evelyn (Francesca Fenech). There are also a couple of locals in the shape a Porter (Phili...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-peter-pan-olivier-theatre/ There are days when I get up, face the morning commute, spend an hour stood on a crowded bus with my head thrust into some stranger’s armpit and I really wish I had never grown up to be an adult. Of course, that was impossible, after all, death taxes and growing up are about the only things you can count on happening in life. However, if you want to escape the humdrum and learn the story of the boy that never grew up, the place to be is the Olivier Theatre where Peter Pan has taken up residence for the festive season. The action takes place in Victorian England where Mr and Mrs Darling are heading off to a party leaving their three children, Wendy (Madeleine Worrall), John (Marc Antolin) and Michael (John Pfumojena) under the care of their ‘nurse’ Nana (Ekow Quartey). However, unbeknown to the parents outside their window lurks the shadowless figure of Peter Pan (Paul Hilton) accompanied by h...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/154705/review-pinocchio-kings-head-theatre-london/ From left – Francesca Fenech, Joshua Da Costa – Photo by Bill Knight If I was to ask you if you knew Carlo Collodi’s story about an old toymaker called Geppetto and the little wooden boy he made. A boy that was forever trying to do good but mostly failed, even aided and abetted by an insect conscience. Well, you would turn to me and say oh yes I know it. I would then respond in traditional pantomime style by replying ‘oh no, you don’t’. We would go back and forth with this response and counter-response until I got you to the front door of the King’s Head Theatre in Islington where Charles Court Opera is presenting a new Pinocchio story which is nothing like you’ve ever seen before. Normally at this point in a review, I would give you a quick synopsis of the story but, in this case, everything I wrote would be a spoiler and you really do need to see this show to appreciate the skillful way it...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/153766/review-of-scrooge-and-the-seven-dwarves-theatre-503/ Sleeping Trees, Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves – courtesy of David Monteith-Hodge It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to know that I used to enjoy the series ‘Glee’. Part of the reason for this was the way they used to do ‘mash-ups’ where they took two completely different songs and interweaved them together to form one complete tune – for example, ‘Don’t Stand So Close to me’ and ‘Young Girl’. I mention this because, for the second year running,  Sleeping Trees Theatre Company  have done a similar thing and put two Christmas stories together to present their rendition of  Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves , which they are presenting at Theatre 503. This is not your average fringe Christmas show and the show starts with the Sleeping Trees – Joshua George Smith, John Woodburn and James Dunnell-Smith – telling the audience about the scale of the production we are abo...