Snow White
Format: Pantomime
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Leanne Campbell, JJ Hamblett, Ellie Turner, Mark Hudson, Maddie Hope Coelho & Bippo
Review Date: December 14 2019
Performances: December 13 2019-December 24 2019
Location: Auditorium At M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
Duration: 165 minutes incl. an interval
Age Rating: 5+
It wouldn’t be Christmas with a pantomime or two, and there have been plenty in Liverpool this year. The final one to hit the stage came at the Auditorium At M&S Bank Arena, and it came in the form of the ever-popular tale of Snow White.
Synopsis
Snow White (Ellie Turner) is a sweet-as-pie young lady, who sees the positive aspects of the world while seeking true love from a handsome man. Since I was sat in the audience, Snow White had to settle for the Prince (Union J star JJ Hamblett), though the daft Muddles (Bippo) was also hoping to express his romantic interests in Miss White. But of course, the path towards a new relationship does not run so smoothly in a panto, because the Wicked Queen (Leanne Campbell), Queen Cruella to give her the full title, is in control of the area and would not allow the notion of Snow White being the fairest of them all to take full attention away from her, even after she is told as much by the Magic Mirror (which featured a dog character not too dissimilar to Spit The Dog, who kept calling the Queen Cockles for some reason).
In the meantime, Snow White, aided by her friend Muddles and his mother Dame Dolly (Mark Hudson), seeks to find her Prince. But of course, Queen Cruella won’t make it so easy, and so she hypnotises Muddles to try and kill Snow White. He can’t bring himself to do so (though only after he crept towards Snow with a knife, with the audience hilariously not reacting whatsoever, and with Muddles breaking the fourth wall by drawing attention to this which got one of the biggest laughs of the show), and instead, she is sent off to live with the Seven Dwarves, whose names were altered for this show: they consisted of Chief, Cheeky, Blusher, Lazy, Sniffer, Cranky and Windy. They promised to look after Snow, as did Fairy Fortune (Maddie Hope Coelho), but would their laudable efforts work, or would Queen Cruella conquer Miss White to ensure that she, and only she, would be in line to marry the Prince?
Analysis
There was plenty going on in this show, and the production team could not be faulted when it comes to pulling out all the stops. Besides the usual traits of a panto, we also had water guns, pies, a 3D scene, a whole host of daft costumes, plenty of one-liners, some unique settings, authentic costumes, pop culture references, audience interaction, chocolate selection pack give-aways to the kids and more. This was an all-encompassing show where no stone was left unturned to try and deliver the most action-packed show imaginable.
The story was easy enough for the younger members of the audience to follow, and the sheer ludicrousness of the situations often had the cast laughing and ad-libbing, which is always a sign of a good panto show. The performances as a whole were very good, with Bippo and Mark Hudson garnering the biggest laughs, as intended based on their slapstick characters. Ellie Turner and JJ Hamblett were actually not together on stage too much, but when they did, they were accepted by the audience as the doting couple set to rule the kingdom. I did find the accents of some of the Seven Dwarves to be amusing, as they were deliberately hammed-up to make generic lines sound more amusing as a direct consequence. Elsewhere, Leanne Campbell was believable as Queen Cruella, and Maddie Hope Coelho served her purpose well by sprinkling some occasional Fairy dust in the role of Fortune.
What I would say is that the scripting may need a bit of a rethink, because there were some lines that caught me a bit off-guard. The double entendres are always to be expected, so I have no issue with those (even if some may have resulted in a few kids asking some difficult questions to their parents on the way home!), but there were other remarks that I felt were a bit unnecessary. The admittedly infrequent jabs at the idea of robbing Liverpudlians was unnecessary and only serves to add fuel to a stereotype that actual figures prove to be false on a national level (sure it’s laughing at oneself, but this is something that many locals have a major issue with when receiving these remarks from outsiders), and given the general mood of the city over the past week, it was probably the worst possible time, and also a rather poor choice of location, to unleash some Boris Johnson impersonations. There were other lines and characterisations that had me scratching my head (such as a near-the-knuckle reference to Prince Andrew’s current situation), seemingly in an attempt to be controversial in front of a crowd who weren’t seeking such comments, and to those paying attention, some of them might have left a poor taste in the mouth. I wouldn’t say that these moments went so far as to spoil the show as a whole, but they did have me thinking quite a bit when the dust had settled. I would advise those tasked with writing the script to look at trimming those moments, because the show would have been fine without them anyway, and these random incidents didn’t impact the plot in any way, so removing them out would not make any difference, aside from making the show as a whole far more enjoyable to Liverpool attendees, who are the target audience after all.
Summary
Though the poor-taste comments did irk me a bit, on the whole, I still found Snow White to be a fun evening out at the theatre/auditorium, and I would still say that Snow White is worth checking out, primarily to prepare the family for the imminent Christmas festivities.
Notes
Target Audience: Ages 5-12
Content: 1/5 – Some Mature References
Recommendation: Yes
Overall Rating: 7.5/10 – Good
Snow White runs at the Auditorium At M&S Bank Arena until Tuesday December 24. To buy tickets, click here or call 03448 000400.