Review: Dick Whittington at St Helens Theatre Royal ****

Dick Whittington may have been Lord Mayor of London three times – but this panto version of his real-life story is a first for Regal Entertainments at St Helens.

Because it turns out that despite having a quarter of a century of panto productions directly under their belt, mother-and-daughter team Jane and Chantelle Joseph have never staged the story for audiences before.

In fact, among all the festive shows on offer across the city region, this is the only Whittington among them.

This being Regal Entertainments and St Helens, it’s a story delivered on a lavish scale.

The set is Technicolor bright, apart from an enchanting silver-encrusted affair before the interval on which the dance ensemble moves gracefully like something out of the Great Ziegfeld, framed by an illuminated pros arch and beautifully lit.

The sound is booming – so much so that when you add ear-piercing screams from the young audience it lifts the decibels well above safe limits, and there are some well-timed and liberally used pyrotechnics which signal the arrival of Rachael Wood’s rhyming Fairy Bow Bells.

Writer David Phipps Davis’s plot takes the very general framework of the original story and runs amok with it.

Above: Dick Whittington (Matthew Wolfenden) and Tommi the cat (Jenna Sian O'Hara). Top: The cast of Dick Whittington. Photos by David Munn Photography.

Richard ‘Dick’ Whittington (Emmerdale actor Matthew Wolfenden, very engaging) has left the Dales for London to seek his fortune in a city where the streets are reputedly paved with gold.

What he actually discovers is a city under siege from an infestation of vermin led by the dastardly and ambitious King Rat (Tim Lucas) who has dealt with the capital’s cats so he and his gang of whiskered followers can rule unopposed with King Rat as Mayor.

It’s up to Dick, his fellow new-in-town pal Tommi the talking cat (a lean and lithe Jenna Sian O’Hara), and the trio who are keeping the local Penny Pinchers family business afloat – Dame Felicity Fitzwarren (Richard Aucott rocking an impressive range of dame costumes), her winsome daughter Alice (Chantelle Morgan) and the hapless Idle Jack (Lewis Devine) – to vanquish the royal rat and for Dick to become Lord Mayor instead.

Read an interview with Timothy Lucas

The cast work very well together as an ensemble – there’s a palpable sense of camaraderie and they all look like they’re having fun, which means we the audience have fun too.

Several of them are Theatre Royal regulars and certainly know how to work the St Helens audience. On a chilly Friday morning that audience consisted of me, a handful of stoic teachers and about 400 schoolchildren high on excitement and snacks.

Above: Idle Jack (Lewis Devine) and King Rat (Tim Lucas). Photo by David Munn Photography.

Working a room of predominately young people needs a different approach to a mixed family audience, and the cast whisked through the more adult humour and cultural references which went straight over the head of those watching (I’m glad they did because frankly there are far too many ‘dick’ jokes) to hit the sweet spot with slapstick, crowd wrangling and teacher teasing from Devine, enjoyably juvenile insults from a borderline sinister Lucas, and the liberal use of water pistols throughout the auditorium.

Pantos also reflect the current fads and trends. Who can forget the terrible earworm that was Baby Shark a few years ago?

This season it’s the unfathomable 6-7 viral craze – surely already dealt the death knell by Keir Starmer referencing it? - and KPop Demon Hunters’ Golden, both of which perhaps inevitably find their way into Dick Whittington.

Above: Rachael Wood as Fairy Bow Bells. Photo by David Munn Photography.

Golden, late in the second half, is just one of a bountiful range of big bright musical numbers, buoyed by all the cast being accomplished vocalists along with some lively choreography by Nazene Langfield – whose own dance students form the hard-working wider ensemble.

The story veers off normal course and into uncharted territory after the interval when the characters unaccountably take to the high seas; a plot device that enables the introduction a well-crafted 3D underwater interlude in which sea creatures swim at speed straight at the audience. Cue much high-pitched screaming.

Back on dry land, there are baddies to vanquish, true love to find and destiny to fulfil, all of which this Dick Whittington delivers in exuberant and colourful festive fashion.