Tag: Ali Kirkham

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REVIEW: Malton and Norton Musical Theatre, Aladdin – The Pantomime, Milton Rooms, Malton, until January 24 ****

Harriet White’s Aladdin and Harry Summers’ Abanazar in Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin – The Pantomime

ONCE upon a pantomime, the Malton show was synonymous with butcher Fred Bower as the juiciest of prime-cut dames, for 25 years, before passing away on New Year’s Eve in 2003.

Somehow, the market-town panto has escaped the diary of your reviewer since those Malton and Norton Operatic Society days.

Apologies for that aberration, one belatedly rectified by CharlesHutchPress’s acceptance of an invitation to attend Malton and Norton Musical Theatre’s Aladdin – The Pantomime, as he settled into seat F15 amid the flurry of raffle ticket sales.

It was Wednesday night, the halfway point of the week-long run, and by now the show was into its groove, assured, polished, equally filled with pun and fun, led by the towering dame, Rory Queen, as much a Malton panto institution as butcher Fred before him.

That’s not his character name, by the way. No, this possessor of a regal nomenclature is vamping it up as Widow Twankey after “20 years of glitter, chaos and questionable costume changes…still getting the same thrill guiding and watching our younger members dazzle the audience (while I try desperately to remember my lines and locate my dignity),” as he writes in his programme note.

Happy to report that Queen has still not found Dignity on his pantoland satnav – hurling loo rolls at all and sundry – and long may that continue as he parades the kind of physical comedy once the province of Tommy Cooper.

Queen is on co-director duty too, working alongside regular director Mark Boler, stalwart musical director Chris Hocking and Ryedale’s celebrated choreographer and dance tutor, Ali Kirkham, as they steer a cast ranging in age from eight to 85.

Here is a pantomime where one and all have their moment in the spotlight, not least the Chorus, Junior Chorus, Senior Dancers (led by Sophie Kemp in her third year as dance captain) and Junior Dancers (divided into Diamonds and Emeralds, and no doubt shining equally, whichever is performing at each show).

Fresh from her outstanding choreography for Pick Me Up Theatre’s glorious Christmas show, Anything Goes, so full of fun and fizz at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, now Ali Kirkham makes every ensemble number dazzle in cahoots with Hocking, her musical director for many years, assisted by Michaela Kemp’s choreography for the juniors.

Everyone dances with such delight in the likes of Dancing In The Street, We Are Family, Celebration and the climactic Walking On Sunshine. You will lose count of the number of cartwheels whirled across a stage often filled with more than 20 well-drilled performers.

Hocking, in his trademark flat cap at the keys, is joined by drummer Clark Howard and bass player Christian Topman, two musicians often out of sight but outstanding in their playing on the York circuit. All are on top form here.

Queen’s Widow Twankey, as full of chest as jest, pulls the strings, always mischievous, often mutinous, and fruity too, as Tom Whalley’s script prompts the gentleman in the next seat to express his disapproval of “too much smut” as we chatted in the interval.

Certainly, no opportunity for seaside postcard sauce is overlooked, but room aplenty is found for putdowns of neighbouring Pickering, salty asides on the town sheriffs, the Fitzwilliam Estate, and their suddenly disbanded food markets, and a topical reference to The Traitors. Best of all is the Emperor (a meta-thespian Thomas Jennings in his 11th Malton panto) attributing his sudden poverty to his newly acquired ownership of Greenland. Trump that, Donald J.

Three Summers come along at once in Malton, courtesy of Harry’s Summers of discontent as evil sorcerer Abanazar, Mark turning the Genie of the Lamp into the Genie of the Camp and son Alexander ironically losing his head as the Panda (his headgear falls off) when also playing the Executioner.

In her ninth Malton panto, A-level student Harriet White steps up to principal boy for the first time as Aladdin, singing impressively, especially Diamonds Are Forever, while revealing comic timing too in a traditionally straight panto role before she leaves the company with plans to work in journalism. The fourth estate’s gain will surely be theatre’s loss.  

Among the young principals too are Isobel Davis in her first lead role at 15 as the headstrong Princess Jasmine; Amelia Little, 17, as a not-so-shy So-Shy ahead of playing Roxie Hart in Malton Sixth Form’s Chicago; trainee chef Tom Gleave as cheeky-chappy Wishee Washee and Annabelle Free as a gymnastic Spirit of the Ring.

Evie-Mae Dale, 17, and Jack Robinson, 16, are a riotous double-act as hapless, competitive coppers Sergeant Pong, keen to smell out every crime, and the unworldly PC World respectively.

Look out too for Malcolm Tonkiss’s cameo as Mangle Malcolm, as brief but as amusingly baffling as the Porter in Macbeth, and then add Shangri-La and Aladdin’s Cave set designer Sam Boler, scenic artist jo Claire, make-up artist Claire Smith, lighting designer Oliver Stables, sound engineer Alex Linney and the costume flamboyance of Molly Limpets Theatrical Emporium and Kirkham Henry to your rounds of applause.

Malton and Norton Musical Theatre in Aladdin – The Pantomime, Milton Rooms, Malton, January 22 and 23, 7.15pm; January 24, 1pm, 5.15pm. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

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REVIEW: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, delightful, delicious, de-lovely till Dec 30 ****

Alexandra Mather’s Reno Sweeney: Leading with pizzazz in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

IF your search is for anything but pantomime on the York stage over the festive season, then go full steam ahead for Cole Porter’s 1934 musical, one set on a Christmas steamer, it just so happens.

Pick Me Up Theatre supremo Robert Readman is on design duty (as well as in producer and co-choreographer mode), fitting out the Theatre@41 auditorium with blue-and-white seating on the deck of the SS American, the audience placed port or starboard side in a traverse setting.

The upper deck, as it were, likewise fills the mezzanine level with more seating in familiar sea-faring livery.

Add two white-frosted Christmas trees on raised platforms at either end that open up to turn into beds, and Theatre@41 looks a picture, a picture that has you wanting to join this fast-moving, fizzing, funny and fun party.

Susannah Baines’s Evangeline Harcourt and Mark Simmonds’s Elisha Whitney in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Andrew Isherwood is at the helm, steering Porter’s Anything Goes with a keen eye for comic as well as dancing rhythm, working in tandem with chief choreographer Ali Kirkham, whose CV reveals her past days on cruise ships.

On board is a cast that combines plenty of the cream of York’s theatre world with two new arrivals, Fergus Powell and Thea Fennell, who moved up from Cambridge only two months ago. Two classically trained voices are to the fore too: York Opera leading lady Alexandra Mather fronting a musical theatre production for the first time with aplomb as Reno Sweeney and University of York graduate Claire Gordon-Brown singing delightfully as Hope Harcourt.

As the SS American makes its stately way from New York to London under the ever watchful eye of Adrian Cook’s ship’s Captain, Mather’s nightclub singer-cum-evangelist Reno glides coolly hither and thither, as if Dorothy Parker were penning her lines.

Adam Price’s Billy Crocker, left, Alexandra Mather’s Reno Sweeney and Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin in Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Newly red-headed and looking every inch the Thirties’ part, matched by her Angels (Chloe Branton’s Chastity, Sophie Curry’s Virtue and Sophie Kemp’s Charity), Mather’s Reno is working with her forlorn buddy, Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price, lovely singing tone), the stowaway desperate to woo his beloved Hope Harcourt (Gordon-Brown’s role).

Porter, as elegant as eloquent in his writing, has such fun with Crocker’s character, who must take on myriad  disguises not to blow his stowaway status. Price, light of comic touch, is a joy, particularly when faced with that old Skakespearean comic device of the mistaken identity.

He works well not only with Mather’s Reno, queen of the acid comment, but also with Powell’s Moonface Martin, Public Enemy #13 conman, who joins Reno in backing Crocker’s cause, while also seeking to elude detection. Both have to keep their wits about them, and Porter gives them lines plenty to fit that bill.

Thea Fennell’s Erma Latour is given a lift-off by Charlie Fox, left, and James Robert Ball’s Sailors in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Taking on disguises: Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin, left, and Adam Price’s Billy Crocker take on ever more extreme steps in Anything Goes. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Charlie Fox, in a break from cruise-ship engagements, bonds with the equally agile James Robert Ball as a brace of nimble sailors, while Ball has a second string to his comedic bow as the righteous Minister Henry T Dobson, something of a turbulent priest to rock the ocean liner.

Neil Foster first played Hope’s fiancé, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, the only Englishman aboard, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre all of 27 years ago, and the role fits him like a familiar glove, immaculately attired, thoroughly decent, delighted by American sayings. You might call Sir Evelyn nice bit dim in that Harry Enfield way, but Foster’s characterisation is more than mere caricature, and he revels in Sir Evelyn’s sudden revelation.

Susannah Baines’s grand mama Evangeline Harcourt (a role shared with Beryl Nairn), Mark Simmonds’s resolute Elisha Whitney and Leo Portal’s busybody Ship’s Purser are all in fine form too, and we are sure to see more of Pick Me Up debutante Fennell on the evidence of her Erma Latour, who’s a scream. Zachary Stoney and Reuben Baines, from Pick Me Up’s autumn hit production of Bugsy Malone, add a youthful spark here too as Spit and Dippy.

Fergus Powell’s Moonface Martin, left, with Reuben Baines’s Dippy, centre, and Zachary Stoney’s Spit. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

Deputising for musical director John Atkin, who was on Father Christmas duty elsewhere on press night, Nigel Ball led the band as merrily as Porter’s wonderful tunes demanded, while Mather, Price and co delighted in his witty lyrics.

Kirkham’s choreography is playful, stylish, thrilling, making the most of the open deck with panache and exuberance, all enhanced by Julie Fisher’s fabulous costume designs. Throughout, Mather leads with pizzazz, hitting the heights with a knockout performance that affirms she is as much at home in musical theatre as opera. Cue a fight for her services! You’re the top, Miss Mather, as the opening number proclaims.

Does the director let anything go in Anything Goes? No, sirree, precision, precision, precision rules as he puts the swish into Isherwood, turning the madcap into the ever maddercap, the tap number into top of the taps, the romantic buds into full bloom.

All the while, the Porter hits keep a’coming: It’s De-Lovely, Let’s Misbehave, Bon Voyage, I Get A Kick Out Of You, Blow, Gabriel, Blow. Isherwood and his company get a kick out of every one of them, and so will you. Truly, it’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s de-lovely.

Pick Me up Theatre, Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York. Performances, 7.30pm, December 15 to 18, December 20 and December 27 to 30; 2.30pm, December 20, 21 and 27. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Do you bite your thumb at me, sir? James Robert Ball’s Sailor in Anything Goes

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Getting a kick out of you musical of the month: Pick Me Up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York

Setting sail in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Anything Goes: Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather, front centre) and her Angels, Sophie Curry, left, Chloe Branton and Sophie Kemp. Picture: Felix Wahlberg

DITCH the December chills in York and climb aboard the S.S. American as Pick Me Up Theatre’s all-singing all-dancing Christmas production of Anything Goes! sets sail at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on December 12.

Directed by Andrew Isherwood, Cole Porter’s swish musical follows the madcap antics of a motley crew as they chart their course from New York to London on a Christmas-themed steamer.

On board are popular nightclub singer/evangelist Reno Sweeney (Alexandra Mather) and her pal, lovelorn Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Adam Price), who has stowed away on board in pursuit of his beloved Hope Harcourt (Claire Gordon-Brown).

Hope, however, is engaged to another passenger, English gent Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, played by Neil Foster, who is reprising the role after 27 years. “It’s amazing how I’ve remembered so many of the lines and lyrics,” he says. “They must have been buried somewhere in my memory.”

Sailing to England too is second-rate conman Moonface Martin (Fergus Powell), aka “Public Enemy #13”. Song, dance and fabulous farce ensue as Reno and Moonface try to help Billy win the love of his life.

Reno will be Alexandra Mather’s first lead in a musical after principal roles aplenty for York Opera. “Taking on Reno Sweeney is incredibly exciting for me,” she says. “I’m stepping into such a sharp and charismatic role, which is a dream come true.

“With Cole Porter’s music and the brilliant, witty script, the whole experience feels nostalgic, stylish and incredibly glamorous.”

“I’m stepping into such a sharp and charismatic role, which is a dream come true,” says Alexandra Mather of playing Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes

That pretty much sums up Susannah Baines and Beryl Nairn too, who will be  sharing the sassy role of Hope’s mother, Evangeline Harcourt. No strangers to a sequin and a spin around the dance floor, they cannot wait to take to the stage at Theatre@41.

“It’s a fantastic role and I’m honoured to be sharing it with such a great, talented friend,” says Susannah. “I just feel for the rest of the cast, dealing with two overbearing mothers! I love this era. It’s so elegant. And I’m really enjoying working with our choreographer Ali Kirkham.”

Ali is right at home with her role, not only as choreographer but also with the nautical setting of this musical. “I worked as a singer myself on cruise ships,” says the former head of musical theatre at Kirkham Henry Performing Arts in Malton.

“I produced shows for more than 20 years for the fabulous Fred Olsen liners and theatres around the world. Many of my ex-students have gone on to perform on the West End and Broadway, in television and films, and of course on top-class cruise lines. Like my former student Charlie Fox, who is joining our York cast between contracts.”

The full cast comprises: Alexandra Mather as Reno Sweeney; Adam Price, Billy Crocker; Neil Foster, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh; Fergus Powell, Moonface Martin; Claire Gordon-Brown, Hope Harcourt; Beryl Nairn/Susannah Baines, Evangeline Harcourt; Mark Simmond, Elisha Whitney, and Adrian Cook, Ship’s Captain.

Thea Fennell plays Erma Latour; Leo Portal, Ship’s Purser; James Robert Ball, Minister/Sailor; Zachary Thorp, Spit; Reuben Baines, Dippy; Chloe Branton, Angel; Sophie Curry, Angel; Charlie Fox, Sailor, and Sophie Kemp, Angel. Cameo roles go to Ryan Richardson, Rich Musk, Andrew Roberts, Sanna Jeppsson, Adam Sowter and Jim Paterson.

The creative team comprises director Andrew Isherwood; musical director John Atkin; sound and lighting designer Will Nicholson; choreographers Ali Kirkham and Robert Readman (who also handles design and production) and wardrobe mistress Julie Fisher, assisted by Jo Hird.

Pick Me up Theatre in Anything Goes, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, December 12 to 30. Performances, 7.30pm December 12, December 15 to 18, December 20 and December 27 to 30; 2.30pm, December 13, 20, 21 and 27. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/seasons/b4dda860-03cd-492d-b990-026e1ec590a3