Review: Rapunzel, The Montgomery

Rapunzel is loosely based on Disney’s Tangled. It tells the story of a princess with magical hair, abducted as a baby by a wicked witch, then locked in a tower. Everything is hair related; Dame Fanny Follicle runs a hair salon with her son Pascal, King Bouffant has a crush on Dame Fanny and goes for a haircut, where Fanny’s new haircut machine leaves him follically challenged.

Handsworth and Hallam Theatre Company (HHTC) has a core of regular principals who have acted together in many pantos. They slot into their roles with ease each year, totally comfortable working with each other, showing complete trust in their fellow actors. The result is a tight, fast paced panto in very capable hands with the focus fully on the laughs.

The Dame and Son double act is well established at HHTC. Brothers Matthew and Joseph Walker have taken these roles for some years and their partnership is brilliant. Both great singers, they bounce off each other excellently with ad-libbed banter and humour better than many professional panto performers. Matthew Walker’s Dame is a sarcastic tour de force with hilarious facial expressions and impeccable comic timing. He absolutely owns the stage, with an opening monologue that is hilarious. There are a few mishaps with forgotten lines and unstable wigs on this opening night, yet with Matthew Walker present, the more mistakes that happen, the funnier things get!

Lou Loftus is a very engaging Fairy Dandfuff, the trainee fairy sent to help find the lost princess Rapunzel. She has great rapport with her audience, totally at ease in the role. Sara Ross is an irrepressible Rapunzel with the perfect singing voice. She manages to control her immense hair admirably. As Mother Gothel, Sarah Buckley is wonderfully menacing and another great singer. Her assertion that there may be dangerous Sheffield Wednesday fans outside the safety of Rapunzel’s tower earned her laughter from the audience.

The principal boy is Prince Ryder who is a somewhat reluctant hero, learning how to be a prince from a book. Sam Widdowson finds plenty of humour in the character and his solo singing is strong. Widdowson is a confident performer who expertly opens the show with a self-mocking prologue number about anything being possible in a pantomime.

Andrew Stansall as King Bouffant and Stuart Ogden as Gerald, his camp herald bring plenty of energy to their roles. They also bring lots of humour, especially when the Gerald and the prince accidentally switch instruction books, leaving the King trying to woo Dame Fanny with tent pitching instructions.

Rapunzel is a challenging choice for the set builders, having to create a tower on a relatively small stage which still looks too high to climb without Rapunzel’s hair. Here the tower is reversible with a balcony and it looks fabulous. It’s even more impressive that it was created in-house. Amateur companies contain so much behind-the-scenes talent.

The ensemble provide extra colour with bright costumes and their song and dance numbers are all choreographed and performed well. There are some very young performers in the cast who have their own sweet scene with David Jefferson dressed as a huge head louse singing ‘Witchcraft’ and doing a fine job of it.

Sheffield has many different pantos playing around this time of year, both professional and amateur. You would be hard-pressed to find one that is more entertaining or funnier than this one.

Written by Tom Whalley
Directed by Matthew Walker
Assisted by Jane Jefferson-Blythe
Musical Direction by Steve Trotter
Choreographed by Hayley Wilbourne & Beth Cooke
Production & Creative Assistant – Joseph Walker
Lighting by TD Lighting
Sound by PM Productions

Rapunzel plays at The Montgomery until Saturday 31 January.