People travel from miles around to see The Hawth Theatre, Crawley pantomime because it has a reputation for being a cleverly written and perfectly executed piece of festive theatrical magic, full of superb comedy, stunning costumes, well designed sets and great song and dance numbers. Those making the trip to see this year’s pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, will be thrilled to know that it has all of the above… and so much more!
Tradition is very important to the creative team at Evolution Productions and so, as expected, the first character we meet is the mythical being who, this year, is The Good Spirit Moonbeam played by the wonderful Scott Paige. In just a few moments he has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand, as he quickly moves the story on to the eve of the princess’s 21st birthday.
The courtiers, Aaliyah Baylis, Megan Dawson, Brendan Graham, Matt Powell, Georgia Stinton and Tom Strang are a very cheery and colourful bunch who power their way right through the production showing off some very impressive choreography by Josie Lee and, despite many costume changes and a whole host of dance styles, never seem to run out of energy. Emma Fraser and her superb band provide the musical accompaniment and, for want of a better expression, hit the right note every time they play!
Spoiling all the fun, and really loving being so evil, is Carabosse (Carrie Hope Fletcher). She gate-crashes the birthday party for the Princess to moan about not being invited and then, demonstrates exactly why she wasn’t invited, and warns that the curse, placed on Princess Aurora at birth, will come true before the end of her birthday. As well as encouraging the usual “hisses and boos”, Carrie is also a fantastic singer (and West End superstar) – so she’s not all bad!
On the eve of her birthday, Princess Aurora (Chrystine Symone) bumps into, and instantly falls in love with, the very dashing Prince Michael of Monrovia (Luke Walsh). He accepts her invitation to be her “bodyguard” until the curse runs out at midnight on her birthday, until Carabosse drops in – just to make sure that the curse comes true.
A special something for the younger members of the audience is the appearance of Andy Day, from CBeebies, who plays the Court Jester, Jangles. He enthusiastically entices the audience to become members of his “gang” and has everyone shouting his name, and doing the “secret sign”, whenever he appears on stage.
As well as the reasons already listed that attract thousands of people to return to the Hawth Theatre for the pantomime every year, there is one more, very important, reason – Michael J Batchelor. He has appeared (in 101 different and very spectacular costumes) as dame in the Crawley pantomime for ten years now. Creating side-splitting comedy is second nature to him, whether he is following the script or “taking a momentary diversion” from the text, he has the audience in stitches from start to finish.
The creative heads of Evolution Productions, Emily Wood (Producer) and Paul Hendy (Writer/Producer) have, once again, created a simply superb pantomime. They seem to have an uncanny knack of knowing exactly what the public want to see and hear – and they make sure that they really deliver.
There are a few things that make Christmas time really special, the food, the drink, the friends and family that we get to see and the Hawth Theatre, Crawley pantomime – It really is the icing on the, Christmas, cake!
***** Five Stars