De Montfort Hall. Leicester – until Sunday 5th January 2025
Reviewed by Amarjeet Singh
4****
A pantomime is a traditional fairy tale complete with songs, dances, jokes, exaggerated characters and lots of audience participation. This production of Snow White delivers on all counts. With a stellar cast bringing the Brothers Grimm story to life, its comedy, costumes and capers were in abundance.
Jarred Christmas is mesmerising as Muddles. His audience interaction is hilarious, his wise cracks and word play are witty, and his over-the-top presence is utterly brilliant. Tash Bacarese-Hamilton is a very sweet Snow White. Stuart Rogers stepped in to save the day as a stand in Prince Laurence. Dame Jack Ballard thoroughly entertains the young ones with his/her silly antics and snazzy outfits, and Sam Bailey’s voice is out of this world. Stealing the show is Davina DeCampo as Queen Morgiana, the voice, the costumes, the humour, the complete package! The cast collectively combines to perform a sublime show, and they look like they have a lot of fun doing so.
This performance loses a star because the story didn’t make a lot of sense, there are hardly any magic/special effects, the sets were mostly curtains, a lot of the scenes were quite static, and the dwarves were a little scary. However, the humour, the music and big characters more than make up for these. Stand out moments were a beautiful rendition of the woodland creatures dancing to the sugar plum fairy and a gorgeous duet between DeCampo and Bailey to ‘Enough is Enough’
This production of Snow White is a rip-roaring romp which will have you rolling in the aisles. Could this be the best pantomime you will ever see, other panto’s might not agree but repeat after me ‘Oh Yes It Is’!