Review: Sleeping Beauty – The Rock ‘N Roll Panto, Leeds City Varieties

I ALWAYS think Christmas starts for me with a visit to the Panto, and what a Christmas cracker this one is at Leeds City Varieties. A hugely talented cast, fabulous set design and 110 per cent enthusiasm from all the performers makes this one of the best family pantos for the public of Leeds and West Yorkshire.

The show has all the traditions associated with pantomime – the costumes, the gags, the men dressed as women – but this really is panto with a difference. The music is a huge part of the show and really gets the whole audience rocking in the aisles - regardless of age. If they are not personally singing or acting at the time, each of the actors plays an instrument as part of the band and every number is a sing-a-long classic with well-known songs from the 60’s through to the 90’s. These included songs made famous by Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Wham, Stevie Wonder, The Eagles, Whitney Houston, The Everly Brothers and Cher to name just some of these.

There is only a cast of ten – no dancers, no chorus, but this in no way detracts. In fact, at the City Varieties the stage size is very limited and where I have seen groups trying to put on productions with a chorus the stage has always appeared overcrowded. And this leads me on nicely to the terrific set design by Judith Croft. Judith has slightly extended the stage and put in balcony area above the main stage and this has made the world of difference.

All the ten members of the cast play their part but it would be remiss of me if I did not single out a number of individuals for their acting and singing performances. From a humour point of view I must firstly mention Justin Brett as Dame Taffeta Trott, Kenny Davies as Harold the Herald and Dyfrig Morris as King Camelot. Justin gave one of the best performances of a pantomime dame that I have seen in years. His rapport with the audience was brilliant, his costumes outrageous and his acting brilliant. He was superbly backed up by Kenny Davies as Harold and the two of them bounced off each other just like Morecambe and Wise or Ant and Dec, such was the chemistry between them. Kenny has appeared in all of the last five Rock ‘n Roll pantos at the City Varieties and as a local lad he knows exactly how to play the Leeds audience having been part of the City Varieties Youth Theatre before he headed to London to the Rose Bruford College to obtain his Actor Musicianship degree. The third member of the comedy trio was Dyfrig Morris as the King. He and Justin again were superb together, with the Dame becoming more and more amorous as the pantomime progressed.

From a musical point of view I could not fault any of the performers but must mention particularly Bethan-Wyn Davies as Princes Susie and Alex Winfield as Simon Steadfast. Both have superb voices which were heard to great effect in their duets of Don’t Leave Me This Way and You’re All I Need To Get By. Alex was also excellent with his solo of Sweet Sixteen whilst Bethan shone with her rendition of My Guy.

And any Panto worth its salt has to have the inevitable baddies! Hannah Price as Morgana and Dan Bottomley as Mordred typified the archetypal baddies who were booed at every occasion possible. And this all added to the overall spectacle of the show. In total contrast, Lisa Goodhand and Katia Sartini were delightful as Fairy Fanciful and Frederica the Sprite.

Whilst this was very much a Panto for the kids, there were enough innuendos and double-entendres sprinkled into the script to keep the adults highly amused as well. And whilst very few of the jokes were new, they were delivered with such good timing by the cast that it didn’t really matter that they had probably been used on the City Varieties stage by Max Miller over 80 years ago.

by John Burland