Writers : Ian Adams and Tam Ryan
Director: David Jansen
Musical Director: Adrian Jackson
It’s been a long time coming for the Wolverhampton Grand to fully produce their own Panto, but it was worth the wait with this sumptious festive treat.
The Wolverhampton Grand has been referred to as a mini Palladium, but there’s certainly nothing mini about this pantomine, variety extravaganza. From comedy stints, a spellbinding tap number, magic and lavish musical numbers, no expense is spared to create a panto that competes with the best.
Adrian Jackson, Artistic Director and Chief Executive, hangs up his suit and dons a costume to conduct a wonderful 8 peice band – a panto band that rivals the largest panto in the land. Its clear music is front and centre of this panto, with casting a company of extremely talented performers and the band themselves sitting at the back of stage, often visible throughout, and it works. Maria Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You is reprised twice, acting as a melody for the love story between Snow White and the Price. Equally, it was so nice to hear both a full Prologue and Entr’acte during the panto. It’s rare to find but works so well at raring the audience up, ready for fun. Other pop hits are used throughout including a festive medley at the end and nod to a couple of musical too.
The production starts impeccably strong, opening with a fantastic opening number, complete with ice skating, especially cheographed by Robin Cousins. It sets the bar high for this panto and shows that every little moment has been thought about to give you the wow factor, and that bar just never drops.
Ian Adams and Tam Ryan form a great writing duo. Using Adams’ experience of creating a well thought through plot, with Ryan’s natural flar for humour that resonates with the young and young at heart it makes an extremely funny panto that still has a strong story at its core.
Fairytale’s, particularly, are sometimes the topic of conversation and how they fit into the 21st century, but Adams and Ryan embrace those challenges in an understated way. By doing so, manage to create a firmly traditional panto while embracing new ways to tell the story of Snow White. The use of an AI, personal assistant, as an alternative magic mirror not just allows for lots of hunour but makes this story resonate with today. Similarly, here we see Snow White driven, not just by romance, but keen to have a trusted and love fuelled alliance to ensure the wealth of the local dimond mine is once again fairly distributed. Far from being forced or shoehorned, it’s just part and parcel of the story and ultimately created an emplempory way of how to write a traditional family panto that will be loved and embraced by the audience of today.
Adding to the overall star quality of this panto is the lineup of performances. Kelle Bryan makes the perfect fairy Elementa, sweet and joyfilled, and has a stunning voice to match. Equally as talented is Nikki Colwell Evans as the evil Queen Dragonella who pulls of a classy rendition of Diamonds are Forever and I Put A Spell On You while definitely creating a villan persona who makes you want to boo.
Evie Pickerill is a sweet and sincere Snow White, while Gyashi Sheppy makes a great romantic love interest as Price William of Wombourne or Willy for short. Both Pickerill and Sheepy have an infectious connection that lights up the stage with a blossoming love and warmth.
It would be a disservice to not mention the eight strong emseble who really don’t get time to catch a breath. From ice skating, tap dancing, and puppeteering the Seven Peaky Miners, they’re a huge asset to making this production as stunning as it is.
David Shears’s epic lavish set rounds up the extravagant production. The front cloth uses a huge amount of depth, adorned with luscious wooden framing and dozens of candles. That same level of detail is used throughout, from a cottage that opens up like a dolls house to a stunning glass coffin set peice. Spears’ costume design doesn’t shy away either with the most adorable forest creatures you’ll ever see.
Panto season has just begun, but Wolverhampton has set a standard that will be hard to beat. The scale of this production wouldn’t be out of place on the biggest stages in the country, creating a panto that will stand out while remaining faithful to its community. From using historic mining footage, animals adorning Wolves shirts and an introduction that firmly sets panto land in the heart of the Midlands. This panto knows what it wants to achieve and does it with style and class to create what could be potentially the best panto in the country.
| Value for Money Comments: |
| A panto that competes with the best that’s on a very large scale priced between £16.50 to £41.50 |
The Theatre Twittic 
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