For many years now, the annual pantomime at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne has been the undisputed theatrical highlight of the Christmas festivities in the area but, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this year, I sense that something has changed.
Compared to previous Eastbourne Theatres productions, and to other pantomimes on offer around the region this year, Snow White is an unusually low-key affair and seems to be missing the “Wow” that the Eastbourne audience has come to expect from Chris Jordan and his team.
A major issue that has affected this production is that, with just two days to go before opening performance, it was announced that Denise Black, who was due to play the pivotal role of the Wicked Queen Narcissia, would not be appearing “due to unforeseen circumstances” and would be replaced by Natasha Gray, probably best known as Elsa Chappell from Emmerdale.
This 11th hour change has, obviously, unsettled the cast and, with the production still in it’s infancy, it seems to be taking a little time, and a lot of effort, for them to get back into their stride.
Having said that, Natasha Gray’s performance, with so little in the way of rehearsal time, is more than impressive. With just a couple of, barely noticeable, slip ups she delivers a suitably mean performance which entices some hearty “booing” from the near capacity audience.
Hannah Boyce, who is playing Snow White for the second time in her career, and Tom Senior, who makes his pantomime debut as Prince Simon of Sofaria, both have good singing voices and keep the story rolling along at a good pace.
In, what is mainly, such an old-fashioned and traditional production, it’s good to see that there is still room for some very entertaining video work, a “snow” machine and even an electronic cameo appearance by “Barry from Eastenders” (Shaun Williamson) as the Magic Mirror.
The ensemble dancers, Koda Holland-Smith, Ruby Greenwood and Danny Becker, together with Maddie Hope Coelho as Fairy Goodapple and the children of the Deborah Lamb Theatre Arts School, who wear very elaborate masks to play the Seven Dwarfs, all work very hard and, no doubt, will just get better and better as the run continues.
Although it takes a little time to work their magic on the, rather subdued, Eastbourne audience, Martin Knight as Dame Dolly and local comedian Tucker as Herbie the Huntsman show, once again, what a superb pantomime double act they are, with “The Twelve Days of Christmas” routine in Act Two a demonstration of anarchic panto chaos at it’s very best.
Overall, this production is very entertaining, with a couple of special highlights, but there are some issues with the attention to detail. For instance, after the opening village scene, in which the two male dancers feature very prominently, we are told, when the Prince arrives, that the Queen allows no men in the village.
A small niggle? Maybe, but when they have produced such fantastic offerings in previous years (Peter Pan 2015, Aladdin 2013), with a tremendous eye for detail, something like this mistake, in a show that saw some performances “sell out” a year in advance, does not fit well with the level of expectation.
*** Three Stars