Review: DICK WHITTINGTON, De Montfort Hall
Photo credit: Nicola Young
This year’s family pantomime adventure at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall is Dick Whittington. Dick Whittington heads to London from Leicester (via New Zealand?) with his mum Sarah and his cat Boots to seek his fortune. London is overridden by rats so Dick, as a cat owner, becomes quite the hero.
Janice Dunn is at the helm of the production as the director. She keeps the panto moving, ensuring the kids stay engaged. Despite the show being full of star names, she tries to make sure the story is the driving force for the pantomime. There is a fun mix of music, with musical direction by Tom Noyes and arrangements from Steve Power. Despite there not being a live band (which does seem strange given for most of the year De Montfort Hall is a concert venue), the music still seems lively and there is a good amount of underscoring for the scenes of dialogue.
Headlining this pantomime, and making his panto debut, is BBC Radio 2 DJ and presenter of BBC’s The One Show and Escape to the Country Richie Anderson. Anderson is clearly having a blast on stage. He is full of energy and ramps the campness up to the max. He also delivers a great rendition of ‘Sound of the Underground’. Whilst he may not be the greatest singer in the world, it is fantastic to see him throwing himself into every element of the panto.
Hear’Say’s Suzanne Shaw is a lovely Fairy Bow Bells and builds a great rapport with the audience very quickly. She is one of the stronger singers in the show carrying several of the musical numbers. Her back-and-forths with Djalenga Scott’s Queen Rat are fantastic. Scott is a fantastic pantomime villain. The audience loves to boo her and she clearly revels in being evil on stage. She sadly doesn’t get the chance to show off how capable she is in the singing and dancing department, but ‘Cell Block Tango’ is a fun nod to her recent lengthy runs in Chicago.
Jack Ballard returns to De Montfort Hall as the Dame – this year, Sarah the Cook. He is a wonderful Dame and the audience love him. He has a huge amount of energy and some fabulous colourful costumes. He works very well with comedian Jarred Christmas who also returns to Leicester’s panto, this year as Dick Whittington himself. Despite not being brought up in the UK, Christmas really gets panto. He gets the audience joining in and works well with the kids during the song sheet. However, Christmas is clearly a comedian who can act a bit before he is a singer. He doesn’t really sing much in the show and we don’t get a love duet between him Rebecca Keatley’s Alice Fitzwarren which limits how much the relationship gets developed. We can’t help but think it would have been good to have Christmas as Idle Jack (who is absent from this production) and then a more traditional principal boy as the title character.
CBeebies favourite Rebecca Keatley is a lovely Alice Fitzwarren. It feels like she doesn’t much to do as the relationship between Alice and Dick isn’t developed as much as it should be. Keatley delivers some lovely vocals, carrying several musical numbers alongside Suzanne Shaw.
Completing the cast, Jack ‘Hobbit’ Hobbs, a beatboxer, in his pantomime debut as Boots the Cat. He is a wonderful addition to the show and never feels shoe-horned in. His beatboxing skills are impressive and adds something unique to this pantomime, whilst he still brings to life the loveable cat who the audience just want to cuddle. He has a great rapport with Christmas so it’s not a surprise that the duo often does comedy-come-beatboxing shows together.
Dick Whittington is a fun pantomime that the kids are bound to enjoy. It does sometimes rely too often on the old jokes and a little more double entendre for the adults, given this is Dick Whittington after all, may not have gone amiss. Regardless, it is still an enjoyable family pantomime full of energy and colour.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Jacob Bush
Dick Whittington plays at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall until 3 January, with further info here.