Review: DICK WHITTINGTON, Corn Exchange Newbury
Photo credit: Richard Lakos
Newbury Corn Exchange’s production of Dick Whittington, the fifth successive pantomime by Plested, Brown and Wilsher at the venue, is a feast of music from its opening notes as the volunteer ushers lead the young school audience in a rousing version of ‘All I Want For Christmas’ with the whole audience’s arms swaying above their heads. It sets the tone for the whole show which is packed with well-known tunes.
Detective Fairy Bowbells, played with loads of happy energy by Grace Kelly Miller, builds on this with a delightful opening monologue about retiring from the police force while the adults in the audience recognise the famous TV theme tune from The Bill. She is a constant uplifting presence in the show but sadly the idea of her being a detective solving something hardly takes off and she becomes a stock fairy character. The energy of the cast never lets up, almost breathlessly so at times, as the story careers from one set to the next.
The localisation is driven home by the arrival of Dick, an ambassador for Newbury Town Council heading to London, not to seek fame and fortune but to promote the Berkshire town. His journey by a GWR train that keeps going off track and is announced as late will be all too familiar to regular commuters into the Capital from Berkshire! Kai Harris makes a lively professional debut in the role break dancing around the stage. His mother Dame Jolene, played by Scott Riney in another professional debut, and talking Cosmo the Cat (played by Jade Johnson) join him in his quest.
Percy Rat emerges from the sewers trap in the stage as the Mayor of London, whether intended as a satirical poke at Sadiq Khan or not, the idea was lost on the young audience, but he bursts with evil glee and that certainly secures a response from them throughout. Alex Crandon creates a perfect villain, teasing and goading the audience from the stage and the pit. It does, however, lead to one theme that is massively overplayed; that of the smells and air fresheners required in the battle between the Fitzwarren’ s perfumery and the smell of farts and sewers.
The plotting does take a strange turn from the traditional story as they set sail on the Isle of Wight ferry and then somehow end up in Ibiza where Alice (Shannon Bourne in her pantomime debut) is an aspiring singer looking for a DJ to promote her to international stardom, and this becomes Dick’s mission rather than his own success or indeed promoting Newbury! When she hits the heights and is billed to return to perform “Live at the Corn Exchange” in the finale, she strangely does not actually sing a final number!
So, while the creative ideas don’t gel into a coherent narrative, the young cast throw themselves into the songs and the show becomes almost a concert of familiar songs like ‘I Need a Hero’, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Time Warp’, ‘It’s Raining Men’, ‘We Are Going To Ibiza’, “Man with a Golden Gun’, ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’, and ‘Move It’.
This is a fun musical show with good professional debuts from the young enthusiastic cast, and it delights the young audience who cheered and danced along and clearly enjoyed themselves as they should do at this time of year. Creatively, these writers have done better scripts, but we are sure that they, and the cast, will build on the experience next year. Oh yes they will!
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Dick Whittington plays at Corn Exchange Newbury until 5 January 2025, with further info here.