I love a trip to the panto. It’s such a fantastic family Christmas event in my opinion. So I was thrilled to be invited to review Sleeping beauty at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in my home town. I took my mum, sister and my eldest daughter (she’s 6 years old) with me.
Pantomimes offer something for all the family and we were not disappointed by Huddersfield’s Sleeping beauty. We saw Aladin with them last year which we enjoyed so we had high hopes for this year’s panto. Thankfully it completely exceeded all our expectations.
The script was written by Andrew Pollard and the panto directed by Joyce Branagh. They did a fantastic job. The script is fantastic. It stays true to the classic fairytale Sleeping beauty but with a few modern twists. I think it’s become fairly common now for the female princess to rescue the Prince in pantos and this one didn’t disappoint. The script (and of course the talented actors) had all generations laughing throughout.
As you’d expect from a panto there are plenty of double entendre, risqué humour and local jokes. However, the balance is perfect and none of them offends or are unsuitable for children. Which is more scary a bus ride to Mirfield or coming face to face with the Belladonna Bile?
It’s hard to pick a star of the show but if pushed it would either be the Dame “nanny fanny” or the badie “Belladonna Bile”. The dame is a staple of British Panto and Robin Simpson is as fantastic as ever (he was in Aladin last year too).
She has more costume changes than everyone else and they are all fantastic, elaborate and have plenty of comedy value. Her speed astronomy lesson has to be seen to be believed and must have taken a lot of practice to deliver. She kept the audience entertained and participating amazingly all night. Never did I expect to spend my Saturday evening shouting “we’re full of fettle Fanny” but we all did. I even forgave her for soaking me with a water pistol!
Hayley Russell was fabulous as Belladonna Bile, the witch we all loved to hate. It was her debut at the Lawrence Batley Theatre but I’ve no doubt she’ll be invited back next year. Her solo songs with fantastic and you couldn’t fault her acting or dancing.
The music was perfectly picked for everyone to enjoy with catchy covers of hits such as Robbie Williams let me entertain you, a 70s disco medley featuring Queen, ABBA and the Jackson 5, Calvin Harris Giant and many more. The dirty dancing scene is fantastic fun too.
Hester the jester (Nicola Jayne Ingram) brought lots of laughs and I particularly loved her broad Yorkshire dialect.
Fairy falala-la-la-la-la-la played fantastically by Esther-Grace Button. She was my daughters favourite and I’m sure many others will feel the same. She loves fairies and her sparkly pink outfit was a winner in her eyes.
Alyce Liburd does a fantastic job of playing a modern-day princess Aurora. Sebastian Prince is played amazingly by Thomas Cotran and King Herbet the Hesitant by Richard Hand.
The set is bright, colourful and perfectly set the scene for each part of the story. I don’t want to spoil the panto for you but the huge ‘beast’ is particularly spectacular and a credit to the team. We loved the ending too.
Watch the trailer
Sleeping Beauty is on at the Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield until January 5th 2020. Running time is 2 hours with a 20-minute interval. Book your tickets here for this magical show.
For a different version of sleeping beauty, see here – Sleeping Beauty ballet
Or perhaps you want to see Back To The Future Musical Review.
Disclosure – I was gifted a family ticket in exchange for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Photos are Press photos by Ant Robling.
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