Peter Pan - At Epstein Theatre

Peter Pan - At Epstein Theatre

Wow! They say save the best for last and we certainly did! Saturday morning, I took my nieces to see the latest offering from Panto season – Peter Pan at the Epstein Theatre.  Now I’ve seen many pantomimes over the years, each one slightly different, giving their own slant on a traditional or familiar story but this production was summed up perfectly by both my nieces ‘It was the best ever’.

It begins with the only way a Panto involving Claire Simmo can begin, glitter, glitter and more glitter.  I think she has a contract with some glitter company but nothing has been confirmed!  She sparkles on to the stage giving the audience the perfect start - full of life, full of personality and full of sparkly!

We are then taken into a dance routine with the young dance troupe, who never let down any of the dance routines they did, and there were quite a few.  The dance routines were very well choreographed and to give that much effort after 20 odd shows is a credit to the team.  Shortly afterwards, we see the beautiful Joanne Harper as Wendy.  Joanne has an unbelievable singing voice and demonstrates how good it is on several occasions.  How she keeps singing while flying through the air is a testament to her singing strength. I had never seen Joanne perform before and I’m delighted to say I would definitely see her again, especially if she is singing.  She is soon followed on stage by another new performer for me, Lewis Pryor or Peter Pan has he was better known. He again is a strong performer who looks so natural on stage and had very good chemistry with Wendy (Joanne).  He mastered flying through the air and even managed to give us a summersault. 

Of course, no pantomime is great unless the baddie is great and Dane Bowers proved to be a hit. He certainly took the bad guy routine up ‘Another Level’.  His side kick, Smee,  gets a special mention for this performance as he was only asked to fill the role in the early hours of the morning and boy did he do a great job and squirting my nieces with water was, of course, an added bonus!

Every pantomime should have a dame character but in Peter Pan there isn’t one.  Not a problem for this production – create your own character.  I’m not going to lie to you but I loved Dame Betty, played by Michael Chapman.  In some productions, the dame can look too much like a woman.  This was not the case for Dame Betty, who was clearly a man.  He worked the jokes brilliantly.  The jokes were predictive, poor (Like they should be) and sometimes very risky!  Michael delivered them with a charm and the accent worked brilliantly with the manly walk!

Last but certainly not least, Tiger Lily, played by Georgia Austin.  Georgia can sing, dance and act and I would like to see her in more challenging roles.  There is something about scouse timing when delivering lines and Georgia delivers her lines with real sassiness!

If this was the standard for the Christmas Pantomime, then I would urge you all to book your tickets now for their Easter pantomime.  One of the best things I like to see is the fun the cast have on stage.  They made the audience feel part of the show and I don’t care what anyone says, there is something magical about pantomimes and this was certainly magical!

Thank you

Darren Partington