(Blessing
Xaba as Nurse Nora Knowalot, Lyle Buxton as the Mad Hatter & Georgina
Mabbett-Kelly as Alice. Photo by Val Adamson)
All
in all, this is a true gem of a production and deserves full houses for its
run. Kids and adults alike will be genuinely entertained. I sincerely cannot
recommend it enough. (Review by Barry Meehan)
Steven Stead and Greg King of KickstArt
Productions never cease to amaze me with their creativity in creating annual
pantomimes for all members of the family. This year’s offering – Alice in Wonderland – certainly carried
on the tradition and amazed me ….. no, let’s go further – it left me truly
gob-smacked, to coin a phrase. If ever a production deserved a standing
ovation, it was this one, and the opening night audience gave it two!
The show is brilliantly conceived and
directed by Stead, fresh from his latest outstanding performance in Private Lives. How he keeps on coming up
with the goods – this is his 14th panto – is creative genius. Alice is fresh, novel and truly
entertaining, the action never flagging for a second. The gags come thick and
fast, and the song choice is inspired, some of the numbers being totally
surprising. Reviewers have been asked not to list the songs, and I certainly
don’t want to spoil the surprise element. Suffice it to say that audiences can
expect to hear songs from artists such as Taylor Swift, Megan Trainor, Shakira,
Tina Turner, Lady Gaga, Adele, Josh Groban and Mango Groove, among others.
The production is designed by Greg King,
who has created magical sets and puppet characters that generated spontaneous
applause from a knowledgeable audience. His Jabberwocky and hookah-smoking
caterpillar are true scene-stealers. Other members of the production team that
deserve a special mention are choreographer Simone Mann, lighting designer Tina
Le Roux, music supervisor Jason Bird and costumiere Shanthi Naidoo, all of whom
made substantial contributions to the show’s visual and technical appeal.
(Left: Mthokozisi
Zulu as the White Rabbit with Georgina Mabbett-Kelly as Alice. Photo by Val
Adamson)
And so, on to the cast, all of whom were
outstanding. Georgina Mabbett-Kelly is a delightful Alice with a fine voice and
a charming stage presence, Belinda Henwood is a diminutive but powerful White
Queen, Liesl Coppin excels as a supremely OTT Queen of Hearts, Mthokozisi Zulu
is a true crowd-pleaser as the White Rabbit and Blessing Xaba has to be my best
pantomime Grande Dame ever as Nurse Nora Knowalot. Roland Perold makes a
dashing Knave of Hearts and Lyle Buxton puts heart and soul into the Mad
Hatter.
Comedy duo Iain Robinson and James
Cuningham stand out as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Their rap duel and sword
fight sequence (complete with Star Wars
light sabre sound effects) is genuine laugh-out-loud stuff, as is their
hysterical handling of the obligatory audience sing-along number towards the
end of the night. Last, but certainly not least, is the hard-working chorus
playing village children, rabbits, flowers, courtiers and playing-card soldiers
– Simone Mann, Katherine Anderson, Pavishen Paideya and Sanele Mzinyane.
(Right: The
Queen of Hearts played by Liesl Coppin with Iain Robinson as Tweedle Dum &
James Cunnigham as Tweedle Dee. Photo by Val Adamson)
All in all, this is a true gem of a
production and deserves full houses for its run. Kids and adults alike will be
genuinely entertained. I sincerely cannot recommend it enough.
PS: I hope you like bananas!
Alice
in Wonderland runs at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre until
January 5, 2020. Tickets R250, R200 and R150 (children, students, pensioners
R200, R180 and R120). Schools’ performances: R140 throughout (no discounts).
Book at Computicket. – Barry Meehan
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