It’s pantomime season, oh no it isn’t, oh yes it (stop it), this year’s panto at Venue Cymru is Sleeping Beauty and stars the wonderful Sherrie Hewson reprising her role, in a strange way, of Joice Temple Savage from Benidorm Live.
You can always tell when we are getting closer to Christmas as the pantomimes start to happen, this is the first of three that I’m seeing this year and Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru has certainly set the bar for the other pantomimes.
The lavish production from the set design to the sound is superb, we are taken on a journey to the world of fairy tales with a wonderful cast that has delivered a production that not only looks and sounds good, it’s also packed with comedy for all ages.
Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru has almost everyone laughing out loud at the last night’s opening evening show and the majority of those laughs were brought to us courtesy of the wonderful Sherrie Hewson in her role as Nurse Temple Savage, with some very comedic moments that some came from the script and several off-script such as not being able to get slippers on and being pulled across the stage floor to reading out some messages that had slightly bad handwriting and no one lending her any glasses. Hewson is an absolute star in Sleeping Beauty and she has certainly brought her wit and humour to the stage for the panto.
Adding to the humour of this year’s Pantomime is Kieran Powell as Muddles (the court jester), Powell brings with him some of his puppets to the show and they are just brilliant, my favourite is Dave the Dinosaur, such a cute thing that is a little naughty, perfect for the adults and the kids. Along with Dave comes a Monster that does impressions and these are… Well I’m not going to give the game away on those you will just have to go and see Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru, that also goes for the magical moment with Dave and the Monster that had some of the kids in the audience sitting with open mouths and looking at their parents or grandparents with that “how did he do that?” look on their faces, priceless.
With panto comes the Dame and there is nothing like a dame with Nigel Ellacott who plays Queen Myfanwy, the make and the costumes for Myfanwy are brilliant, all I can say is look out for the bag of poo, brilliant. Ellacott plays a superb dame and brings the character to life on the stage with pure comedy and outlandishness, perfect for a good wholesome family show.
Harriet Bunton who plays Princess Beauty has some superb vocal parts and her voice is lovely, but with Sleeping Beauty she spends more time asleep, but rest assured she makes up for it on her “awake” scenes. You can’t have a Princess without a Prince and Adam Baker plays Prince Harry, yes there are plenty of quips to go with the name, Baker plays a brilliant Prince and certainly has some movies on the stage.
Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru, Good Vs Evil
With pantomime comes the good and the wicked and Sleeping Beauty is no exception with Abiola Efunshile as Aurora, the Enchantress and Jamie Birkett as Carabose, the Wicked Fairy. Efunshile plays the good character wonderfully appearing on the stage in a magic puff of smoke to the delight of the children in the audience, sitting in wonder as she magically appears from nowhere. Birkett, it has to be said, is a superb villain that got plenty of boos and hisses from the audience, she’s a character that you just love to hate, but Birkett plays Carabose with such skill that she brings the character’s evil across in true pantomime style.
Joining the cast on stage for the musical numbers are some of the kids from the Peral Shaw School of Performing Arts, now these lot are very talented and they certainly brought something even more special to the evening’s performance.
Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru is a great way to kick off the Panto season here in North Wales and I highly recommend you check it out, with such an amazing cast and overall production from QDOS Pantomimes, this is a show that you really don’t want to miss, so my recommendation is book your seats now and go have a wonderful time in a land far far away.
Tickets for the Sleeping Beauty are available from the Venue Cymru Box Office on 01492 872000 or via the website at venuecymru.co.uk.
A Magical Pantomime for 2019
Event Title: Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru
Event Description: It's the start of Pantomime season and we kicked off this year's reviews with Sleeping Beauty at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, North Wales
Start date: December 7, 2019
End date: December 29, 2019
Location name: Venue Cymru
Address: Venue Cymru Promenade Llandudno, LL30 1BB
Performer: Various
Offer price: 0.0
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
