Family Fun with Sleeping Beauty at the Albany

Sleeping Beauty at the Albany Theatre, Coventry, from 4 - 12 January 2025.

Review by Alison Manning.

 This year’s pantomime at the Albany Theatre, Sleeping Beauty, features an enthusiastic community cast directed for the first time ever by an award-winning professional Artistic Director – The Albany's own Kevin Shaw.

It has all the essential ingredients of pantomime from repeated catchphrases, through memorable characters, including a multi-costumed dame and a baddie to boo at, to energetic dances to clap along songs. The classic scenes are all there: the slapstick cake-making scene with cream in hats and sloshing buckets of, thankfully, (spoiler alert!) glittery, shredded paper aimed at the audience; the traipsing through the spooky forest scene with characters slowly picked off by a caricatured ghost; the singalong audience scene, pitting one side against the other, this one featuring a rather odd song about onions, and, of course, the inevitable happy ending wedding scene. The self-referential jokes and local references add to the humour, creating enjoyment for all.

In this retelling of the well-known story there are many charming elements, not least the younger children as graceful dancing rainbow fairy pupils, each with their own wand and a sash for a colour of the rainbow, with the addition of gold (always found at the end of the rainbow!). One enchanting scene cleverly marks the passage of time from when the princess is a baby at her christening to her sixteenth birthday, with a merry dance of blind man's buff featuring the princess and her friends at her birthday party, seamlessly slipping from the age of 8, to 12, to 15, with a growing  princess and her friends, complete with a resplendent multi-tiered flowery birthday cake with her increasing age marked in large numerals on top.

There are also some delightful duets between the talented Princess Rose (Maddie Davis) and Prince Valiant (April Royce). Minnie the Milkmaid (Erin Mannion) deserves a mention for an excellent performance as a foil to the more ditsy characters of pages Lazy Larry and Careless Carrie.

The set serves its purpose well, with outlines of castles and forests as appropriate, with the addition of beds, thrones, a staircase and the essential spinning wheel, whilst still leaving enough space for the large cast to dance in other scenes. The lighting and sound effects also add well to the atmosphere, particularly as fairies cast spells and princes wield swords.

The audience were enthusiastic in their participation, booing and calling out even when not directly prompted to do so, readily booing the evil fairy Carabosse, clapping along to musical numbers and shouting out on their own initiative as they got involved in the action, for example a child sitting near us calling out a plaintive, cautionary  "Careful!" as Princess Rose approached the fateful spinning wheel. They were keen on their responses, animatedly mirroring Carabosse’s elongated “OOOOOOOOOs” in “Oooooh no it isn’t” responses, so even Carabosse had to admit she was impressed.

Although generally great in their retorts, I think the audience may have had a slight memory lapse in the interval as, at the start of the second half, the entire audience seemed to forget their (possibly slightly too lengthy) requisite response of “You couldn’t make it up” to Lazy Larry’s “I’m so daft” and he had to plough on regardless. Audience participation could possibly have been increased to make it even more interactive, as in this pantomime no audience members were singled out or invited on to the stage, and most of them certainly seemed like they were up for it.

They were occasional sound issues, with some microphone feedback and some cast members more clearly audible than others, though some of this may have been down to illness. A particular problem was in the cake-making scene, where King Cuthbert (Ian Finnie) and Lazy Larry (Cabe Jackson) had clearly ditched their microphones to avoid cream or liquid-based accidents, relying solely on the amplified microphone of the dame, Nurse Nora (Chris Arnold), who managed to dodge most of the mess. This did, however, leave them inaudible at times, particularly when facing away from the audience and especially compared to Nurse Nora. Hopefully these were opening night issues that can be ironed out in later shows.

On the whole, though, any minor issues could be forgotten in the overall energy and joy of the production, particularly in the entrancing musical numbers with the dance ensemble and junior chorus, expertly choreographed by local dance teacher Katie Gavin. The vitality and vivacity of these young dancers really pulls the performance together making it the entertaining show it is. Sleeping Beauty is on at the Albany Theatre in Coventry till Sunday 12 January.

 Get tickets and find out how to join the fun at: https://www.albanytheatre.co.uk/shows/sleeping-beauty/