Snow White and the Happily Ever After Beauty Salon Review

Salisbury Playhouse – until 31st December 2021

Reviewed by Lucy Hitchcock

4****

Panto is back in town-oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is!!

Wiltshire creative brings their adaptation to Salisbury Playhouse and boy, is it a good one!

A twist on the well known and loved ‘Snow White’ sees Greg Barnett, Rebecca Cooper, Jake Mitchell, Martha Pothen and Consuela Rolle as the multitude of characters making up this brilliant performance. Set In a 1950’s hair salon, Snow is trying to make her aunt Trish proud by working her magic on the 3 Little Pigs, Big Bad Wolf and many other fairytale staples. She suddenly finds herself in peril when her Aunt Trish decides to kill her, so she goes to live with a group of 7 moles underground (puppets no less!). But will Snow escape her Aunt, or will she end up frazzled?

For me, the set was brilliantly utilised. James Button (designer) has done a sterling job with taking a small scale theatre and using it to its full potential. Together with Gareth Machin and Nicky Griffiths for direction and choreography, this is a true toe tapping extravaganza. A sparkling pink set dons the stage for the majority of the show, with a few changes here and there. It really does feel like you are within a salon!

Each and every member of this cast was superb and did an amazing job as changing their roles so quickly and making the audience believe this small cast of 5 was 15 people! The stand out performance of the night was certainly Greg Barnett. He has a stunning voice that was on show during the final number and embodied every character within an inch of their lives. Martha Polen was also exceptional as Trish-with a flair of hilarity mixed with the perfect amount of evil. I did feel as though there could have been more opportunities for the traditional boos and hiss that the evil queen demands, but this did not dampen this brilliant performance. Every member should be proud of their performances and you could see where they excelled, there was an issue with Consuela Rolle’s microphone which was swiftly sorted by backstage crew. However, I did find that Rolle’s singing voice was not as strong as her brilliantly endearing acting.

Jake Mitchell and Rebecca Cooper added so much more to the performance-Mitchell has an exquisite way with words and really made the performance his own. Cooper had one of the most demanding aspects of the show, with multiple quick changes that were seamlessly beautiful.

This is a brilliant performance, with exceptional actors and is really on par with any touring pantomime with headline actors. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and would urge you to join the salon and make sure you keep your wigs on when you find out Trish’s plan!