AD | Tickets gifted in exchange in an honest review.
The Sheffield Lyceum theatre is bringing festive cheer in this year's panto Snow White. With the festive feels flowing and as we get closer to the big day the Sheffield Lyceum is back!Â
Sheffield Theatres’ Snow White follows protagonist Snow White and the Wicked Queen, who thinks she is the fairest of the them all, talks to the magic mirror and also orders the Henchman Viper , Nurse Nellie, Herman and Muddles to go Kill Snow White in the heart of the wood. The four decide not to do what the Wicked Queen tells them, when Snow White is out in the woods where she meets seven dwarfs. But while Snow White is in the woods Prince Charming arrives to try and find his true love and the Wicked Queen finds out that Snow White is still alive and decides to use the infamous poison apple to kill her. But will true love's kiss of Prince Charming save her?Â
Snow White is written and directed by Paul Hendy with Choreography by Simon Barnum.Â
Written by Paul Hendy, Hendy is no stranger to pantomime writing. Hendy has written Evolution Production pantomimes for a while now and audiences can see Hendy’s well versed in writing talent for pantomimes. This year's pantomime has plenty of adult jokes that older audience members could get into, by adding in old jingles that the older audience knows and being able to finish off. While that being said Hendy still writes a good mixture of jokes for all the audience to laugh at and are very funny. Hendy writes the yearly football jokes on Sheffield teams well. Hendy writes a recurring moment of the character Herman (Played by Marc Pickering) who wants to live out an Elton John fantasy, and having the audience join in with a well known section of one well know Elton John song that we know we will get a full version of and a full on medley of Elton John hits. This year's Sheffield Lyceum pantomime sponsor is Sheffield Joy 'Hendersons Relish’. The scene was a great watch to see how many times the cast on stage could say Henderson's Relish, in addition to its sponsor there's an entertaining song dedicated to Yorkshire and food which is led by George Akid who plays Muddles who gets the whole audience singing along and have a competition to see who's the loudest. Hendy writes encouraging interactive dialogue shoutouts slight tweaks on the traditional pantomime features, some very likeable characters, jokes towards Corrie star Catherine Tyldesley who play Wicked Queen and also star of Gladiators Quang Luong, which do get laughs and some funny dialogue for Alan Carr who appears as the magic mirror all in aid of the charity Neuroblast UK. Hendy writes a panto full of joy.Â
Hendy also directs the show, Hendy’s direction is engaging with having cast members enter through the audience, it is fun and lovely to see the younger ones stand up and look at the characters. There's great moments throughout from slow motion, the famous ghost bench gag and the song of thought moment, while the audience walks in we have a hanging screen which is an audience cam, and it's funny to see the audience laugh, cheer and wave to try and get noticed, all the additions give the pantomime something different to be enjoyed,Â
Choreographed by Simon Barnum, Barnum brings energy in this year's panto, with over the top energy and brings inspired moves to the production, Barnum creates some very enjoyable choreography.Â
West End Matthew Croke who grew up in Sheffield plays Prince Charming, and charming could be an understatement on Croke’s vocals, Croke’s vocals are exceptional and beautiful to hear. Croke is a likeable Prince Charming and has great on stage chemistry with Aoife Kenny who plays Snow White, who also displays some sublime vocals and is a truly sweet Snow White. Croke has some very good characterisation skills and can easily get back into character if the script doesn’t go quite to plan (as expected in panto). Croke is well and truly an amazing performer.Â
Damian Williams returns to play the Dame and this year Williams plays Nurse Nellie, Williams is in his 17th year at doing the Sheffield Lyceum pantomime and like always Williams doesn’t disappoint, Williams shows great comedy timing and brilliantly adds some laughable and silly add-lib to the show. Yearly Williams brings joy to the audience every year and you can see that they love it, Williams is natural at pantomime.Â
Coronation Steet star Catherine Tyldesley plays Wicked Queen, Tyldesley gets the boos and greatly plays Wicked Queen. Tyldesley directs the wicked dialogue towards the audience really well, as well as showing some good physicality and facial expressions. Tyldesley makes her Sheffield panto debut and the audience loved her.Â
The set sparkles and is designed by Michael J Batchelor, who also creates some fab costumes, that all shines against the bright lighting design by Mark Dymock.Â
The Sheffield Lyceum panto is something to be enjoyed this festive season, it will leave you having a good laugh, something needed this time of year, with a fab cast and plenty of jokes to enjoy. It’s quality family festive entertainment to end the year.Â
★★★★★
Snow White plays at the Sheffield Lyceum theatre until Sunday 5th of January 2025!
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