Beauty in the eye of all who behold her!

REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty – Swan Theatre, Worcester (Friday, November 28 to Sunday, January 4).

Showtime! stars rating: *  *  *  *  *

THERE ain’t nothing like a dame. Or, as that classic song might have said – but didn’t – there also ain’t nothing like a dame who can direct a festive cracker of a show as well as taking a starring role.

Yes, Worcester is now in the grip of panto fever and so there’s only one place to go… and that’s down to the Swan where the Worcester Rep have once again turned the fun-ometer throttle up to max and then some.

Make no mistake, director Ian Good’s served up the richest of Christmas puddings packed with GOODIES – hey, pun intended, it’s allowed at this time of year – and invites us all to get stuck in.

And who could resist? For one look at his Nurse Dottie Dettol - a wild welter of wigs and frocks - is enough to bring the house down. Hmmm, was that just applause? No, it was also the collective cannonade of the audience’s corsetry splintering in a morass of mirth, too!

So, what a team he’s got together for this year’s extravaganza. For a start, it’s such a pleasure to welcome back to The Moors Nathan Blyth as Fester the Jester with his seemingly endless repertoire of corny jokes.

Time and again, he hits us with his Brummie cacophony of corn. You could say that he’s a CEREAL killer. Boom-boom!

Now to the castle, where Dominic McChesney as King Eric, a picture of bashful, bumbling benevolence, is looking forward to his daughter’s 18^th birthday party.

Candles on the cake, happy ever after? Don’t think so, matey. For lurking in the shadows is the creepy Carabosse, played with all the venom of a viper with chronic fang-ache by Katherine Parker-Jones.

Now, this dastardly damsel of darkness is laying a trap that involves something sharp, and which will completely trash the coming festivities.

Deep sigh. To think she was once butter-wouldn’t-melt Gwendolin in the Rep’s Commandery production of The Importance of Being Earnest. I don’t know what the world’s coming to, I really don’t.

In stark contrast we have Amy Lyons as Princess Beauty, a role she endows with as much aching innocence as her nemesis oozes milk-curdling menace. Her professional stage debut certainly hints of an equally glittering future, for she captures everyone's hearts.

But oh, how I hoped that her chosen one, the dashing Prince Hugo (Matthew Manning) will encounter no problems in the royal progress of his wooing, perhaps other than the collateral damage of a ladder or two in those tights.

And pray observe how he masterfully strides the boards, the sword of righteousness in his hands, looking like an escapee from a nearby Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the forces of good cannot make justice triumph without the help of the right kind of magic, and this is supplied in great store by Hollie Christian-Brooke’s Fairy Virtue, a vision of tinsel and glitter so gleaming that I found myself rummaging in my jacket pockets for some dark glasses.

Produced and designed by husband and wife team Sarah-Jane and Gareth Morgan, and with stunningly slick choreography courtesy of Sarah Day, this fabulous show is powered along by musicians under the watchful eye and ear of orchestrator Rudy Percival.

And last but not least, praise should also be heaped on the Ensemble and Juvenile Dance Teams, which brought the stage to life throughout the entire show.

Indeed, I enjoyed every single, mad minute of this year’s Swan panto. And you will too… oh yes, you will!