Review

Leeds City Varieties

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as the festive song goes! I always feel in the Christmas spirit once I have been to the pantomime, and what a Christmas cracker this panto is at Leeds City Varieties. A hugely talented cast, fabulous set design and plenty of enthusiasm from all the performers makes this one of the best family pantos for the public of Leeds and its suburbs.

The show has all the traditions associated with pantomime – the costumes, the gags, the men dressed as women – but this 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 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.

There is only a cast of ten – no dancers and no chorus – but this in no way detracts. In fact, at the City Varieties, the stage size is very limited and 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 Colin Piggott. Colin has very cleverly extended the stage by only a matter of a few feet, but this made the world of difference.

The usual characters are in this production – Jack & Jill, Dame Dolly, Billy No-Mates, Fairy Aubergine, Fleshcreep the Giant’s henchman, the Squire, the Giant and his wife Gemima and, of course, Bessie the cow who is sold for the bag of beans.

From these, it is very difficult to single out any individuals for specific praise, as they all collectively play such a major part in the production, but there are one or two accolades I must make.

Firstly, Hollie Cassar as the fairy, with her pronounced West Country accent. What a great singing voice Hollie has, heard particularly well in her solo numbers of Reach Out (I’ll Be There) and Sex Machine.

Secondly, Kenny Davies as Billy. I have known Kenny since he was a young teenager when he appeared in many City Varieties Youth Theatre productions, including Les Miserables where he was superb in the role of Madame Thenardier. Kenny has developed into a brilliant actor and musician and was perfect for this particular part with his slapstick comedy. However, as could be seen from his renditions of You To Me Are Everything and What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted, he could be just as good with these poignant numbers.

From a singing point of view, I was also impressed by Joe Vetch as Jack and Rachael Garnett as Jill. Their duets of Sweetest Feeling and It Takes Two, along with their individual solo numbers, were also very good.

Comedy was at the forefront in this production, with particularly impressive performances by Simon Nock as Dame Dolly, the aforementioned Kenny, and Peter Peverley as Squire Snufflebox. Simon was outstanding and produced one of the best dame performances I have seen in a long time, with some outrageous costumes.

While 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 while 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 more than 80 years ago.

This was a great night out and there is another month in which to catch this brilliant production, as it runs until Sunday, January 12. To book, go online to cityvarieties.co.uk, or ring (0113) 2430808. Don’t miss it!

John Burland