Sleeping Beauty

I have been meaning to blog this for ages, and have finally made myself sit down and do it. We all had such good time when we went to see 'Aladdin' last year, that I booked tickets again to see this year's panto at the Oxford Playhouse, which was Sleeping Beauty (the run finished last weekend). However, No.2 decided it was going to be "a girl's thing" and said he didn't want to come. I overheard him discussing it with one of his pals from school. The pal (most unhelpfully) said he wouldn't go to see it either, and that it would definitely be horribly girlie - and there might even be *shock, horror* ... KISSING! Tsk. So ... No.2 went to his dad's for the evening, whilst No.1 joined Mum, my brother and me for an evening out at the theatre.

As with last year's production, this one was written and directed by Peter Duncan (he of Blue Peter fame), and a couple of 'bits' from last year were in this year's show. Lazy writing, or just the experience that those bits go down well with the audience, I wonder? Although we had seats right at the back of the circle, the view was excellent. We went fairly early on in the run and at times the sound was a bit dodgy, but presumably they got that sorted.

Our favourite characters this time, were the King and Queen (Sleeping Beauty's parents), and the panto 'baddie' - in this case the 'wicked fairy' called Carmella Crabstick. The leading lady (Sleeping Beauty) was ok, but she didn't grab us like the three characters I've mentioned.

The Dame this year was played by Stephen Aintree. My personal opinion is that he didn't match up to last year's Dame, but that's an adult view. No.1 said she loved him and can still remember lots of his lines and funny bits. He did take part in some fun slapstick moments with a character called 'Miffins' (played by Robin Armstrong) who was a sort of Buttons-type figure in the whole play: hopelessly in love with the Princess, but as a commoner not in with a chance of winning her hand.

The King was played by Richard Stacey. He was wonderful, and the double act he formed with the Queen was splendid - they clearly enjoyed themselves enormously. A quick scoot around the web tells me that he is 6'2", that his natural accent is geordie, he is a tennis teacher, a qualified TEFL person, is fluent in french and a proficient snow boarder. Gosh - what a talented chap. Apparently he lives in Oxford, so it was a home gig for him. He was very funny, and made a splendid buffoon of the king. He misquoted Shakespeare a lot, and aspired to be a rock singer, so there were lots of silly quips on that score (no pun intended).

The Queen was played by Abi Finley, who many in the UK might know as being a semi-finalist in 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?' (a show featuring Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber in his search to find a star for his stage production of The Sound of Music). She didn't reach the finals, but was apparently snapped up by Sir Tim Rice to play in his show Blondel. Anyway, she was absolutely brilliant as the dippy Queen in this production, and was my own personal favourite of the entire show. I didn't watch the 'Maria' TV programme, so I'd never heard of her before, but I thought her ultra talented, and extremely funny. This was apparently her very first panto - I hope she does loads more as her comedy skills and timing were just right.

The most dramatic performance was from Carrie Ellis who played the wicked fairy Carmella Crabstick. The green make up plastered all over her made her instantly recognisable to the kids in the audience as 'the baddie' and we all booed and hissed every time she appeared. It was she who had the most 'adult' lines in the production, making jokes about the likes of Peter Mandelson which, of course, went right over the heads of the children. In the row in front of us, there was a man who took great delight in heckling loudly in egging Carmella on to ever more evil doings - when everyone else was shouting 'don't touch it!' as she urged the Princess Beauty to touch the needle on the spinning wheel:

He was shouting 'go on ... touch it! Give it a good whack!' I think we found him just as funny as the panto. When the Prince was trying to make his way to reach Sleeping Beauty, nasty old Carmella turned herself into a dragon:

This was a fantastic sight, and I'm really sad that No.2 missed out on seeing it, because he would have loved it - as he would the rest of the show. He'd have especially loved the ensemble rendition of 'I am The Music Man' which required us, the audience, to look under our seats and play the party tooters we found there. In fact the only bit he wouldn't have liked was when the Prince kissed Sleeping Beauty to wake her at the end, and he could have covered his eyes for that, couldn't he?

Next year they are staging 'Jack & The Beanstalk' ... hopefully that won't have a hint of girliness and he will be keen to go.

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