It is panto time and as luck would have it I was again invited to review the show at Westminster theatre..
I didn’t get to see all the panto, for reasons that will become clear, but I will share with you my views on what I saw.
The show starts with a huge shock as the principal character, Tony, is seen being bundled into a sack and thrown off the stage to be replaced by his understudy a rather sour faced Scottish man, Gordon, with very little talent who storms onto the stage and within the fist few minutes kills off 4 of the main characters.
There seems to be some confusion on stage not only among the cast but also the sound and lighting crews. At one point the curtain started to come down to be met with Gordon screaming that anyone who brings the curtain down on him will be finished.
I didn’t get to see all the panto, for reasons that will become clear, but I will share with you my views on what I saw.
The show starts with a huge shock as the principal character, Tony, is seen being bundled into a sack and thrown off the stage to be replaced by his understudy a rather sour faced Scottish man, Gordon, with very little talent who storms onto the stage and within the fist few minutes kills off 4 of the main characters.
There seems to be some confusion on stage not only among the cast but also the sound and lighting crews. At one point the curtain started to come down to be met with Gordon screaming that anyone who brings the curtain down on him will be finished.
It was not long before most of the audience began to suspect that Gordon was re-writing the script as he went along, especially as he kept passing lines to Alistair, the principal girl.
After every interaction on stage Gordon simply replied “I am right, I am in charge I am running this panto".
The principal boy, played by a Jacqui Smith, an actor completely out of her depth and with no talent, flitted about the stage around Gordon with little or no idea what her role was. At one point she started a fight with a group of characters for no apparent reason then started reciting lines from last years panto.
The first musical number “when I rule the world” took everyone including the orchestra by surprise and was a resounding flop because the chorus were expecting “the wonderful thing about tiggers”.
With chaos on stage, the lights on automatic and the crew now in the bar Gordon continued to ignore the script and storm about the stage in some strange one man show. Nothing anyone said or did made any difference. Having tied back the curtains and chained himself to a stage prop he shouted and babbled endlessly.
It was clear that the evening had degenerated into a farce and many in the audience began to get up to leave which resulted in Gordon throwing out vouchers for 2 percent off popcorn in the lobby. When this failed to quell the exodus he began throwing out handfuls of cash from a box on stage.
It seemed like the evening would go on for ever and with people shouting “get off” and ”rubbish” Gordon had all doors locked and the emergency exit chained shut.
Many passed out with fear and some poor woman jumped from the gods, thankfully landing on a very fat man below and sustaining only minor injuries.
The two stooges David and Nick together with a number of the cast managed to storm the stage and remove Gordon but too late to save the evening.
The events of the evening were troubling, but not as disturbing as the comments being made in the lobby afterwards where the majority of people were saying that they defiantly wanted Gordon to be given the principal role in next years pantomime.
After every interaction on stage Gordon simply replied “I am right, I am in charge I am running this panto".
The principal boy, played by a Jacqui Smith, an actor completely out of her depth and with no talent, flitted about the stage around Gordon with little or no idea what her role was. At one point she started a fight with a group of characters for no apparent reason then started reciting lines from last years panto.
The first musical number “when I rule the world” took everyone including the orchestra by surprise and was a resounding flop because the chorus were expecting “the wonderful thing about tiggers”.
With chaos on stage, the lights on automatic and the crew now in the bar Gordon continued to ignore the script and storm about the stage in some strange one man show. Nothing anyone said or did made any difference. Having tied back the curtains and chained himself to a stage prop he shouted and babbled endlessly.
It was clear that the evening had degenerated into a farce and many in the audience began to get up to leave which resulted in Gordon throwing out vouchers for 2 percent off popcorn in the lobby. When this failed to quell the exodus he began throwing out handfuls of cash from a box on stage.
It seemed like the evening would go on for ever and with people shouting “get off” and ”rubbish” Gordon had all doors locked and the emergency exit chained shut.
Many passed out with fear and some poor woman jumped from the gods, thankfully landing on a very fat man below and sustaining only minor injuries.
The two stooges David and Nick together with a number of the cast managed to storm the stage and remove Gordon but too late to save the evening.
The events of the evening were troubling, but not as disturbing as the comments being made in the lobby afterwards where the majority of people were saying that they defiantly wanted Gordon to be given the principal role in next years pantomime.
Very worrying.
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