There are some great performances in this year’s Cambridge Arts Theatre pantomime. Not so much Maleficent as magnificent. Tricia Adele-Turner as the wicked fairy Carabosse in Cambridge Arts Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty really is a star turn. With her perfect diction and graceful stature, you get a notion of Diana Rigg playing Lady Macbeth. You almost see things from her point of view.
Matt Crosby as the Dame, Nanny Nutkins is of course superb. He IS the Arts Panto. His is THE presence on the stage. He has been for the past 20 years.
As he says in his biography in the programme, he loves Cambridge: “From the bottom of my heart and the heart of my bottom”.
And it’s mutual. We love him.
Who else could glide in wearing those frocks and say those lines, especially the ones we adore every year such as, to the children who are called on to the stage: “You’re nine! I was nine when I was your age.”
We know what he is going to say before he says it, but he says those lines as if they have just come into his head. And we laugh as if we have never heard them before. The stage comes alive when he is on it.
Then, this year, someone brand new. He even steps out of a box: Prince Ken. Played by Joseph Hewlett. He seems about seven feet tall.
He first appears in that box with a Cellophane front, just like the Barbie and Ken dolls. For the rest of the show, he carries the demeanour of the all-American hero. Here is Superman without the cloak but with the shoulders which could carry it.
His are the worried facial expressions of the 1950s man with the world on his shoulders – always seen narrowing his eyes and looking thoughtfully into the distance. (Obviously seeing something the rest of us don’t see).
He’s marvellous. He has caught the look of those men you used to see modelling jumpers in knitting patterns.
There is some lovely singing and dancing in the show. The dancers are not only technically precise, but they are also an integral part of the show.
Tanisha Butterfield as the cheerful Fairy Strawberry has a fine voice. The duet of Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know by Prince Ken and Princess Rose (Daisy Twells – again everything you would want a princess to be) is actually quite moving.
Written by Chris Jarvis with plenty of jokes – some (as Nanny Nutkins says) you might not want to have to explain to children; an hilarious slap slop slide – get up again and fall over again and the Dame’s wig comes off and we see his undergarments scene – in which Nutkins and Happy Harry (a slick Steven Roberts – whose appearances never fail to get a response) fall over, get up and fall over again – (I know I’ve just said that but they do it several times).
Once again, the Arts panto is the glorious start of Christmas. Congratulations must go to the costumes team.
Dame Nutkin’s dresses sometimes cause a gasp of laughter. One great frock was designed by a little girl called Flora, who was invited to see the show as a prize.
The whole cast’s glittering walk down outfits were inspired, I think the best I have ever seen.
The audience was on its feet at the end.
Sleeping Beauty is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Sunday, January 4. Tickets from www.artstheatre.co.uk or 01223 503333.
