Darlington Hippodrome – until 31 December 2025
5*****
Darlington Hippodrome brings you this year’s Panto Goldilocks and the Three Bears “The Greatest Panto on Earth” and indeed it was!
With much sparkle and pizzazz this is a production extraordinaire, a show full of fun and laughter that you must get yourself down to see!
The story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is not the original that we all know but adapted with a twist. Dame Betty Barnum (Jamie Jones finally getting the starring role he deserves) is under pressure as her circus is losing money and needs a star. Joey the Clown (Josh Benson) offers to be the star of the show, and hopes that by doing his tightrope walk he gets more people to the Circus and that Goldilocks (Taziva-Faye Katsande) will fall in love with him. But Baron Von Bolshoi wants to ruin the Circus. So when the talented Baby Bear (Jessica Daugirda) and her parents Mummy Bear (Christina Berriman Dawson) and Daddy Bear (Jonny Weston) turn up to Dame Betty’s Circus, Baron Von Bolshoi kidnaps them to star in his Circus instead.
Josh Benson is amazing, carrying the show all the way through, definitely the hardest working person on the stage. He is very funny and clearly talented with his falls and leaps and impressive acrobat skills. Dame Betty Barnum (Jamie Jones) gave us an absolutely eye-catching performance with her many outrageous but fun and amusing costumes with her slapstick comedy. Baron Von Bolshoi (Brendan Cole) shows off with his sensational dance skills, and I loved that there was a lot of dancing in the show. He bats off being introduced as Anton Du Beck, and the constant thread that he is Australian (he’s a New Zealander)
This production offered so much and more than a normal panto. With some phenomenal acts such as El Mariachi Maquez (Gorden Maquez) a juggler of international experience, showing off his spectacular skill of different combinations and speed in juggling. Just extraordinary. And with 3 dancing bears, what more could you ask for?
There were the traditional Panto tropes of course, the 12 Days of Christmas song took on legendary proportions as things went “wrong”, including the very real tearing of Von Bolshoi’s trousers. And Benson did an hilarious take on Old MacDonald with 5 year old Benjamin whose favourite animal is Capybara, but as no one knew what noise they’d make on the farm, he did an enthusiastic dog barking instead. 8 year old Tallulah gave us an excellent cat and 8 year old Seth did a Shark (the band -Tim Hammond, Peter Brent, Tim Farmer and Ben Phillips – played the Jaws tune for him)
This show was just exceptional from beginning to end, with costumes (Maxines Feathers) that were outstanding, full of colour and totally unique. Great lighting (Mike Samuel) with sparkles everywhere. And incredibly high production values – a massive shoutout to all the technical and backstage crew and all at the front of house too. So much glamour from one show! The atmosphere in itself was energetic and remarkable. What a performance, with so much talent involved! Darlington you’ve outdone yourself this year, a production with an atmosphere of greatness and pure delight.