Tag: Aoife Kenny

Posted on

Jocasta Almgill takes shine to dark side as wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty

Jocasta Almgill’s wicked fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor Photography

WEST End star Jocasta Almgill has headed home to Yorkshire to patrol the dark side as villainous Carabosse, East Riding accent and all, in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal.

One hundred years of sleep await Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora but there will be no rest for Jocasta’s wicked fairy until January 4 2026.

Originally from Hull and now based in London, she has appeared in such musical roles as Diana Morales in A Chorus Line (Curve Leicester/Sadler’s Wells/national tour) and Rizzo in Grease (Dominion Theatre, London), receiving nominations for the 2022 Black British Theatre Award for Best Supporting Female in a Musical and the 2023 WhatsOnStage Award for Best Supporting Performer in a Musical.

No wonder York Theatre Royal creative director and Sleeping Beauty director Juliet Forster enthuses: “We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome Jocasta to York for this year’s panto. She is an incredible talent and audiences are in for a real treat.”

Amid her myriad credits, Jocasta has performed in York previously. “I was in the original tribute to The Blues Brothers, which came to the Grand Opera House years ago in my first job out of college [Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, from where she graduated in 2009 after three years of musical theatre studies],” she says.

East Yorkshire-raised actress Jocasta Almgill

“Then I came back on tour in 2018 with Hairspray, when I was Peaches, one of The Dynamites.” Watch this space for news of a possible return there in a “big musical” next year.

In the meantime, Jocasta is revelling in breaking new ground in Sleeping Beauty. “Carabosse is my first baddie. It’s such fun,” she says. “I always do the Fairy normally, and I love the Fairy in panto, but she’s there to tell the story.

“As Carabosse, I can just have fun and have a lovely time being bad, so I’m really enjoying playing the baddie. Basically Carabosse is so annoyed she’s not been invited to Aurora’s Christening that she casts a spell on her that, before her 18th birthday, she will prick her finger and then be asleep for 100 years.”

Such bad behaviour contrasts with Jocasta’s previous goody-goody pantomime roles for Evolution Productions, York Theatre Royal’s panto partners. “Last year I played Cupid the Fairy in Beauty And The Beast at Canterbury; prior to that, Myrtle the Mermaid in Peter Pan in St Albans.

“In 2020, for Evolution, I was at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley, when we were socially distanced with the tier system in place for Covid 19, and we managed to stay open through the run. It was called something like Dame Dolly Saves Panto!” Indeed it was.

Jocasta enjoys working with the award-winning Evolution team each panto season. “One hundred per cent! It’s why a lot of actors go back to work with them each year, having that security of a good show each winter, which frees you up to do other acting jobs over the rest of the year, knowing you have a job at Christmas.”

Jocasta Almgill’s Carabosse in her lair. “She’s my first baddie. It’s such fun,” she says. Picture: Pamela Raith Photography

This year took Jocasta to Japan to reprise her role as Diana Morales in A Chorus Line. “It started off as a Curve production in Leicester, then went to Sadler’s Wells, and then some Japanese producers picked it up,” she says.

“We were there for ten weeks, playing three cities, Tokyo, Sendai, Osaka and then back to Tokyo. Japanese is a tricky language to learn, but within the company there were lots of Japanese people, so I could practise my Japanese.”

How did that go? “Sometimes they would laugh at me! Like when I thought I was saying ‘That was delicious’ and in fact I’d said ‘Would you marry me’!”

She took the opportunity to go sight-seeing in each city. “There was more time than you might think to do that – and I’m quite the early bird, getting up early to see things. It was very special to be there; an experience I shall never forget.”

Jocasta had pinned her hopes on playing a panto villain  earlier than this winter. “At St Albans two years ago, I said ‘I want to play Captain Hook’, which would have been so much fun, but then they cast me as Cupid,” she recalls.

Jocasta Almgill in rehearsal for her villainous role as Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty

“I thought, ‘it’ll never happen’, but thankfully they offered me Carabosse this winter, and I told them, ‘I’d love to do that’.”

Jocasta is delighted to be drawing the boos in Sleeping Beauty. “It’s great to be working with Evolution again. We have a brilliant show on our hands that’s really exciting and is a real spectacle, as well as being funny. Visually it’s amazing, and I’m very happy with my costumes,” she says.

“I sing quite a few big numbers. Paul [Evolution Productions’ artistic director and York panto writer Paul Hendy] always has me doing some rocky numbers. I did Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle as Welcome To The Panto in Beauty And The Beast, and here I’m doing Hellfire, from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame musical.

“I get to open Act Two with Pinball Wizard, and I’ve got a duet with Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam where we compete with each other in Ugly Kid Joe’s Everything About You.

“The cast bounces off each other so well, and I love working with Robin [Robin Simpson’s dame Nurse Nellie], who’s hilarious. Luckily I don’t have too many scenes with him or I’d be giggling!”

York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present Sleeping Beauty until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Jocasta Almgill in her poster portrait, announcing her appearance in Sleeping Beauty

Behind the scenes of Sleeping Beauty pantomime with S R Taylor Photography

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime photographer S R Taylor Photography has gone behind the scenes to give a glimpse into the backstage magic of this winter’s co-production with Evolution Productions.

Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster directs regular dame Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie, Jocasta Almgill’s villainous Carabosse, Tommy Carmichael’s daft lad Jangles, CBeebies’ star Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam, Aoife Kenny’s Aurora, Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia and fire act Kris Madden’s Guardian of the Raptor in the panto run until January 4 2026.

Here is a selection of Taylor’s plethora of panto photographs.

Behind you: S R Taylor Photography takes a picture of York Theatre Royal dame Robin Simpson as Nurse Nellie prepares to enter the stage

Aoife Kenny’s Aurora in a quiet moment in the wings

Jennie Dale’s Fairy Moonbeam on full beam

Raptor the dinosaur and fire act Kris Madden’s Guardian of the Raptor turn up the heat in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal

Robin Simpson’s Nurse Nellie in a riot of colours in Sleeping Beauty. The dame’s costumes are designed by Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame Creations

Kris Madden lighting the wheel of fire for his pantomime pyrotechnics in Sleeping Beauty

Aoife Kenny’s Aurora and Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia performing a duet in a captivating scene in Sleeping Beauty

Hat trick! Kris Madden prepares to light up the panto with one of his fire highlights

Posted on

REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty, York Theatre Royal, no rest for the wicked or the wacky until January 4 2026 ****

Jennie Dale’s radiant Fairy Moonbeam in York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions’ Sleeping Beauty. All pictures: Pamela Raith Photography

NOT even the cast knows what to expect in York Theatre Royal’s sixth collaboration with Evolution Productions when a button is placed under the control of Moss, the dame’s pick from the audience for affable humiliation on Monday.

An inspired pick, it turns out, with a laugh as distinctive and unusual as his name, giving more grist to the mill for Robin Simpson’s saucy, smart returnee dame to grind.

This was press night, but a press night with a difference. When would Moss press that button to release the explosive power of the confetti cannon?

The show is ticking over nicely when suddenly… Bang! Cue Kool And The Gang’s Celebration, Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora being jolted from her Sleeping Beauty slumbers and a mass outburst of cast  “corpsing”.

Come Hull or high water: Jocasta Almgill’s villainous Carabosse in boastful skulduggery mode with her creepy Goth acolytes in Sleeping Beauty

Whereupon Simpson’s ever-gregarious Nurse Nellie improvises, interjects, scolds Moss and interrupts Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia as he tries to resume singing Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s aptly titled Die With A Smile once he regains his composure, only to put him off his stride again.

This is panto mayhem at its best, unpredictable, bringing out Simpson’s innate sense of capitalising on the moment. One of many reasons why his dame is the poster face for next year’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs – his seventh Theatre Royal dame too.

That explosion is not the only moment when Sleeping Beauty goes off piste to winning effect. Tommy Carmichael’s returning daft lad, Jangles, finds himself in a pickle, when a bed fails to rotate in the obligatory ghost scene, leaving him in view of the audience.

In tandem with Simpson’s dame, he milks this glitch to the ad-libbing max, and it would surprise no-one if this easily solved technical hitch does not become a regular part of the show. It’s how pantomimes grow and change through a run, and one of live theatre’s greatest joys. No two shows are ever the same.

Harrogate actor Christian Mortimer’s Prince Michael of Moravia in Sleeping Beauty

It helps that Evolution Productions director Paul Hendy writes such a well structured show with the strongest of foundations to leave Simpson and Carmichael, blossoming in his second York panto, to play fast and loose when chance allows.

Mortimer joins in the fun and games too, a playful change from the conventional straight-laced princely type entrusted with soppy ballads that peaks with the best slippy-slidey slapstick slosh scene at the Theatre Royal in years. Indeed, the slapstick is an upgrade on Aladdin last year, now more than a match for Hendy’s verbal wit.

Hendy and Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, in their sixth panto partnership, place equal emphasis on story, set-piece, slapstick, spectacle and sass, respectful of tradition but thoroughly modern too. 

No YTR/Evolution panto would be complete without  a CBeebies star – it’s becoming a tradition in itself – and Jennie “Swashbuckle” Dale is the best yet, radiating joy, warmth and no little wit as the “fun, silly storyteller” Fairy Moonbeam. No wonder she worked with Victoria Wood, no less, in the past on What’s Larks!.

Top: Fired up! Kris Madden’s pyrotechnics in Sleeping Beauty. Bottom: The more vacuous than vicious Velociraptor called Raptor in Sleeping Beauty

She just happens to have a spectacular singing voice too – capable of going down valley, up, up, up Dale – at its best in a show-stopping sing-off with Jocasta Almgill’s “evil, stroppy and silly” Carabosse in Ugly Kid Joe’s Everything About You. 

Powerful voice, physical presence, a thoroughly good sport at being panto-villainous, Almgill tops it off with a Hull accent, exaggerated just so, you kner, for comic effect. Her rendition of The Who’s Pinball Wizard with re-tooled lyrics is a belter too.

The Hendy staples are wheeled out, from the dame’s cart with pictorial placards, this year on the theme of musicals, to an animal, still not on a par with Zeus the scene-stealing Border Collie two years ago but designed to thrill dinosaur-fixated children in the form of “the vicious Velociraptor”, whose bark turned out to be worse than his bite, as it were.

Indeed, the dawdling, limb-twiddling dinosaur somewhat undermined the impact of speciality act Kris Madden’s fire artistry as Guardian of the Raptor. I’d be tempted to fire the Raptor to give Madden the unimpeded spotlight his hot stuff deserves, but that wouldn’t fit with his role!

Robin Simpson’s gaudy, gregarious dame Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty

As ever, there is as much to enjoy in Hayley Del Harrison’s punchy choreography as in Hendy’s puns in the punchlines, together with Terry Parsons, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s dazzling set designs, Parsons, Amy Chamberlain and Ella Haines’s costumes and especially Michael J Batchelor and Joey’s Dame’s Creations’ ever-changing  wardrobe for Simpson’s dame. The pink theme for the walkdown attire is particularly striking.

Musical director, arranger, composer and drummer Edwin Gray adds to the drama with his superb arrangements for songs that vary from Chappell Roan’s Hot To Go, for the dame, to an ensemble mash-up of Schools Out/Baggy Trousers/ABC; from two Beatles’ numbers, the opening Good Day Sunshine and Golden Slumbers, to this year’s fizziest pop anthem, Golden, from KPop Demon Hunters.  

Ensemble players Alyssia Turpin, Elijah Daniel James, Sophie Flora, Chris Morgan-Shillingford, Carlotte Rose O’Sullivan and Jayden Tang play their part to the full too, bringing added oomph to songs and having fun in myriad cameos, such as Carabosse’s dungeon Goths and towering guards.

Politics pretty much misses out this year – nothing feels funny about politics right now – although a flooding joke goes down well in flood-familiar York. Sleeping Beauty is very much awake, picking up momentum as the best pantos do, with  Simpson, Dale and Almgill outstanding and Moss making sure everyone keeps their wits about them.

York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions presents Sleeping Beauty until January 4 2026. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.  

Aoife Kenny’s Princess Aurora and Tommy Carmichael’s Jangles with the ensemble cast of Chris Morgan Shellingford, back row, left, Elijah Daniel James, dance captain Alyssia Turpin, Sophia Flora, and , front row Jayden Tang, and Charlotte Rose O’Sullivan

Did you know?

NEXT winter’s York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions co-production will be the Theatre Royals’ first-ever pantomime staging of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. Written by Paul Hendy and starring regular dame Robin Simpson, the show will run from December 4 2026 to January 3 2027. Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Posted on

York Theatre Royal launches Sleeping Beauty with fire show. Who’s in the cast?

Sleeping Beauty cast members, left to right, Tommy Carmichael, Jennie Dale, Robin Simpson, Aoife Kenny, Sophie Flora and Chris Morgan outside York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick Photography

THE York Theatre Royal pantomime cast for Sleeping Beauty has met up for the first time.

In attendance too at the costumed press launch were the regular production team of director Juliet Forster, the Theatre Royal creative director; writer Paul Hendy, artistic director of panto partners Evolution Productions, and choreographer Hayley Del Harrison.

Dressing up for the occasion were Robin Simpson, returning for his sixth year as dame, easy to spot in polka dots as Nurse Nellie; fellow returnee Tommy Carmichael, on daft lad duty as Jangles; CBeebies’ star Jennie Dale, making her very first visit to York ahead of playing Fairy Moonbeam, and Irish-Jamaican actress Aoife Kenny, likewise setting foot in York for the first time, in readiness for her title role (also known as Aurora).

Present too for the photoshoot were ensemble cast members Sophie Flora and Chris Morgan – who will be joined in the show by returnees Charlotte Wood and Christopher Morgan-Shillingford. Turning up the heat in a demonstration on stage was fire act Kris Madden, the bright spark who will be the panto’s variety turn.

He is the fire starter: Kris Madden, the specialist fire act, warms up for his variety turn in Sleeping Beauty at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick Photography

Absent on the day, on account of performing commitments elsewhere, but also confirmed for their Theatre Royal pantomime debuts were West End actress Jocasta Almgill, from East Yorkshire, as wicked fairy Carabosse, and Scott Goncalves, a name familiar to York audiences from his days in York Orchard Musical Theatre Company, Pick Me Up Theatre and York Light Opera Company.

“We’re very excited that Scott will be playing our prince, Prince Michael of Moravia,” said Juliet. “He did a couple of York Light Opera shows here and was one of our young Lancelots when we did The Legend Of King Arthur [July 2013], when Anna Soden and Laura Soper, both now professionals too, were also the cast too. Scott went off to drama school and has been doing musical theatre shows.”

Jennie, from Brighton, has made a habit of playing the fairy in panto, “though I did play the Witch in Hansel & Gretel and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, which I absolutely loved, but other than that I’ve always been a goodie,” she said, before heading off to Bradford to rehearse and record this winter’s CBeebies’ pantomime, Cinderella.

“The fairy is a bit of a safety net for children because, when they see me, they know everything will be OK,” says Sleeping Beauty’s Fairy Moonbeam, played by CBeebies star Jennie Dale, PIcture: Charlie Kirkpatrick Photography

“Funnily enough, the character I’m known for on CBeebies is a baddie. I play Captain Captain in Swashbuckle, though I also have my own series called Jennie’s Fitness In Five, five minutes of attempting to get children to do some exercises, where it all goes wrong!

“But in panto I love how the fairy has an important thread that’s carried throughout the performance, explaining to the children what’s going on, but also with lovely humour. She’s a bit of a safety net for children because, when they see me, they know everything will be OK.”

Sleeping Beauty will run from December 2 to January 4 2026. Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.