I received an invite to cover Hull New Theatre’s annual panto for our gutted editor. Unfortunately, his girls were poorly. My gain. Wow, what an absolutely fun filled night I had.
This year’s production is Jack and the Beanstalk, that classic fairy tale of the giant and his wife, going after the animals in the village where our hero lives. They have taken most of them but the Trot family cow Daisy is hanging on. Jack is tricked into selling Daisy the family cow to the Giant’s wife in exchange for some beans, which his mother throws out. The beanstalk grows, and our heroes go in search of Daisy to rescue her.
Jack Trot (Gareth Gates) was as handsome as our hero should be and put up with lots of Pop Idol jokes from his brother Silly Simon played by Neil Hurst on a return visit to Hull New Theatre. Hursty always carries the panto with his quick timing and rapport with the crowd and this year was no different. Our boys were brilliantly supported by Princess Jill (Alana Taylor) and Dame Trot (Jack Land Noble) who loved hamming it up in a variety of fantastically gaudy costumes.
Our giant this year was 3D and we all donned our glasses for some brilliantly scary effects and the Giant’s wife was played by Chelsea Hall who was our local interest. She was a great ‘baddie’ and had the audience booing and hissing at her throughout. The Giant’s wife had a nemesis in Mother Nature played by Georgia Lucida- Davies enchanting throughout.
The scenery was brilliant. I love panto scenery as its so ‘in your face’ and magical for the younger members of the audience. One of my little friends told me she wanted to live in the fairy castle which was shown, this was in between shouting very very loudly at the stage at all the appropriate moments. Cyan, I am sure you were the noisiest child there, or at least my ears thought so.
Costumes were colourful, especially that for Dame Trot. The ensemble had plenty of costume changes and their dancing was slick and well rehearsed.
I’ve grown to love the panto format, including the obligatory tongue twister, and a variation of the 12 Days of Christmas sung by the main characters to include, balls, toilet rolls, wellies and a fairy at the top of the tree. The audience lapped this up.
The performance I attended was a signed one. Get a good signer the side of the stage and they are as entertaining as the main cast. It was hilarious to watch Silly Simon and the cast interacting with Andy the signer to see how many rude signs they could make him sign. Honestly, Andy should be signing every performance as the ad libbing going on was first class. It was as if he had been signing this show for months.
I can highly recommend this years Panto as it is a great one for all of the family, from small children to great-grandparents. Each half is just the right length to keep the interest of the children and each character on stage was excellent. Special effects were brilliant even if it did look as if Andy the signer had passed wind each time there was a puff of dry ice on his side of the stage. Don’t miss it, it really is worth the money for an afternoon or evening’s entertainment and watch out for the time of the performance on the ticket as the evening is 7pm Be prepared to laugh your socks off and get a sore throat from shouting at the stage.
