Grand Opera House York – until 9th January 2022
Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
3.5***
After retiring as the Dame, Berwick Kaler just couldn’t keep away, it’s in his soul, and Grand Opera House York have taken up the realm this year. York legend Berwick brings his regular band of highwaymen, to York’s Grand Opera House for their latest pantomime, his first at this lovely venue. As well as staring as Dotty Donut, the mammie of the bunch, he has also written and directed Dick Turpin Rides Again, presented by Crossroads Pantomimes.
As the regular gang of, Martin Barrass, Suzy Cooper, David Leonard and AJ Powell, graced the stage they were all greeted with enthusiastic applause. Obviously, a lot of the audience had followed them to their new “home”.
Suzy and Martin play Dotty’s children, Donna and Dunkin Donut, whilst David is the dastardly Vermin the Destroyer, the evil villain, until he isn’t. Last, but not least, is the loveable brummie, AJ Powell, as Luvlie Lumpit. New to their panto family is Daniel Conway as the Dashing Dick Turpin and his faithful steed Peggy.
As always with Berwick’s panto’s, they start with the story you may know, but this all goes out the window, with any semblance of sanity, pretty quick. This show did not disappoint. We had cowboys, vampires, and a garlic alien from the planet Garlatica to name but a few. The later had me snorting in laughter, quite literally, to see AJ in his skimpy shorts with his garlic head is a sight to behold. Suzy had us in stitches as a bat, teeth falling out and all. I must say she looked fantastic, very lithe.
The set and costumes were colourful, though the piéce de résistance was the flying Peggy, complete with Daniel in full voice, riding in the starry skies. This was truly magical and enchanting to watch. I must say I’ve only seen 2 pantos this year and both had flying horses??!! To be fair, though completely different, they were both spectacular. Unfortunately, Berwick’s costumes were a bit of a let-down, not nearly flamboyant and outrageous enough. We wanted more!
Overall, I did enjoy the show, but it was lacking the wow factor for me. Some of the jokes and humour were dated and missed the mark, at times the audience were just not getting involved with the bite backs. It is still worth going to see for a bit of out there escapism, a laugh and to see the York Dame back in action.