The Stage

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Published Tuesday 9 December 2008 at 12:35 by Scott Matthewman

Chesham’s magic mirror, one of pantomime’s most brazen expositional devices, looks bored out of his skull whenever he appears in this production. Thankfully, the occasions in which one may agree with him are few.

The panto starts a little too slowly, with so many call and response cues to be rehearsed with the audience that it feels like an age before the story proper gets going. Once it does, though, things liven up considerably, with the second half, in particular, possessing the pace that is lacking at the show’s opening.

Alexis Caley’s Snow White is an anodyne but likeable heroine, while Jasmine Darke vamps up to excess as the wicked Queen Sovainia. David Martin’s fool, Muddles, doesn’t always find the right line between childlike and just childish, but John Fleming’s devilish Dame, Mother Moppy, enlivens proceedings throughout.

It is the male romantic lead, Lee Bright as the charming Prince Florizelle, who stands out. With the strongest singing voice and an ability to deliver the cheesiest dialogue with utter sincerity, he helps to elevate the whole show. In that task he is assisted by the seven children playing the dwarves under large masks, who do superbly well to combine their mime work with the pre-recorded dialogue tracks.