It’s that time of year again! [oh no it isn't] when you have to put your preconceptions in the cupboard marked ‘Grinch’, dust off your Christmas spirit and head off to the Regent Theatre for the annual Johnny Wilkes offering.
That’s exactly what Mike Rawlins and I did last night as we attended the Launch of this years production of ‘Dick Whittington’ with our good lady wives.
Now I’m not going to give you the lowdown on the plot [you really should know it anyway!] but I am however going to give you the inside track on those all important performances.
Let’s start with Johnny ['ay up me ducks] Wilkes. Well what can you say? The lad’s a true Stokie and he gives all round strong performance as the principle character, Dick. He is the lynch-pin of the production, very funny, great timing and strong singing.
Fairy Oatcakes is played by the wonderful Sheila Ferguson. Good lord can this lady belt out a decent tune! The ex Three Degrees lead singer gave a marvellous performance. This year perhaps the panto should have been Peter Pan because she still looks amazing too!
The bad guy is the evil King Rat played by Steven Serlin and what better testament to him can there be than he made the little ones cry. He has a seriously good voice too!
Actress and model Amy Diamond was Johnny’s love interest as the beautiful Alice Fitzwilliams, she was every bit as enchanting as any panto principle girl I’ve seen. Her Father Alderman Fitzwilliams his played by Pete Conway who after a bit of a dodgy [but funny] start, recovered to finish very strongly indeed.
Star of the show for me at least, was the hilarious Christian Patterson, returning for the third year running, who donned the most shocking outfits to play the wackiest dame in panto-land, Sarah the Cook. The guy/gal gave a spot on performance and while he observed the traditional panto rules he also managed, through comedy, to make the role current.
Stoke’s Top Talent 09 winner Su Annagib played the Sultana of Morocco and added a bit of Bollywood to the production with her excellent leading song.
This was an assured performance by the entire cast.
It’s full of fun and innuendo, slapstick and audience participation. I honestly didn’t know you could have so much fun with that festive favourite ‘The 12 days of Christmas’ This version managed to get five toilet rolls into it that went on a journey to behold.
Listen, top and bottom of it is it ain’t Shakespeare, OK? No it’s much more fun than that. If you fancy two hours of pure escapism amidst the gloom of our City’s recession then this is the night for you. It’s well worth the ticket price to see Sarah the Cook alone.
Yes and it even managed to get me and Rawlins laughing and that my friends is an achievement!
Dick Whittington is on at the Regent Theatre and runs from
Friday 11 December 2009 to Sunday 10 January 2010
Box office number is: 0870 060 6619