Review: Sleeping Beauty at the Floral Pavilion ***1/2

Deck the halls with boughs of holly – and a thicket of thorns so fiendish it will take a handsome prince to hack through.

‘Tis the season to be jolly. And there’s plenty to be jolly about in the Floral Pavilion’s seasonal offering Sleeping Beauty, which delivers the classic story with a good sprinkling of the songs of the year including Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club and – seemingly unavoidable if you go to any panto anywhere this Christmas – K-Pop earworm Golden.

There's also an unexpected plot twist late on that has hints of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a touch of Wicked about it.

Like many fairytales, Sleeping Beauty is actually quite dark, and along with all the silliness the New Brighton’s production doesn’t shy away from its dramatic and bleaker side.

It’s the day before Princess Rose (CBBC’s Cleo Demetriou) turns 18 and she’s straining to break free from the cotton wool confines imposed on her by her father the King (David Pendlebury, a booming presence) since she was born.

Rose has never been told about Carabosse’s (Amy Perry) evil spell which curses her to prick her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel before her big birthday and die, so you can see why she's frustrated at the house rules.

Meanwhile the king has also invited a collection of princes to her birthday bash to woo the teenager, and given her lust for independence she’s not too keen on that either. Until, going AWOL from the castle, she accidently bumps into one in the woods that is and is instantly smitten.

What could possibly go wrong? I think we all know the answer to that.

Demetriou, who as a young actor was one of the original Matildas in the West End, makes for an appealing heroine, while Daniel Urch is a real find as ‘Prince Vincent from Worcestershire…where the sauce comes from’ (and also, incidentally, this reviewer).

Above: Daniel Urch as Prince Vincent. Top: Kelle Bryan as Fairy Snowfall. Photos by Brian Roberts.

Often the prince is a bland bit-part player compared with panto's more colourful comedy characters, but Urch is having none of that. Arriving, Monty Python-like, on a coconut clip-clopping steed, his cocky, swashbuckling Prince has more dash than the Morse code and a wonderfully resonant bass-baritone singing voice.

He's matched for sheer zest and exuberance by Perry’s bright and glamorous baddie, whose initial entrance sets the tone for a high wattage performance that makes you want to be part of her gang. Or maybe it’s just me.

She clearly relishes her role and performs her musical numbers with panache and great vocals, underscored by a good live band in the pit.

Talking of vocals, Eternal’s Kelle Bryan no less plays the (good) Fairy Snowfall – Rose’s fairy godmother. It takes until late in the second half for Bryan to be given a big number of her own, but elsewhere she brings a musical energy to her rhyming delivery.

However, her character’s sudden appearances from stage right really need to be accompanied by more va va voom. At the moment her fairy is announced with a rather feeble ‘pftt’ puff of smoke from behind which she materialises almost apologetically.

The other element of the show that needs some additional turbo charging is the double act which is the comedy engine room of any panto.

Above: Amy Perry as Carabosse. Photo by Brian Roberts.

Quinn Patrick (Nanny Nora) and Sean Jones (Lester the Jester) are both accomplished and experienced panto performers who know how to work a family audience. But at the performance I attended at least, which admittedly was towards the start of the run, it all just felt a bit, dare I say it, safe.

Jones, understandably, has dialled down the pratfalls in recent years (it’s a while since he’s hurled himself into the pit) but his initial entrance, hustling from the back of the auditorium, takes so long that some of the energy/excitement it builds among the young audience has dissipated by the time he reaches the stage.

Meanwhile later on, when the lights go up on a ‘cooking’ scene in the castle kitchen, there’s the tantalising prospect of some deliciously messy havoc, but apart from an errant banger and a gag involving a bit of flour, the anticipated anarchic action never really materialises.

And perhaps it’s time for the panto producers to retire the seemingly obligatory ‘Ghostbusters’ segment which feels like it's just going through the paces – or even better, swap it for the guaranteed crowd-pleasing chaos of the manic 12 Days of Christmas.

I’m not suggesting full-on Dangerous Brothers, but up the comedy wattage and general seasonal silliness ever so slightly and this Sleeping Beauty is a good solid four-star festive family show all day long.

It’s big and colourful, there are sword fights and flying sequences, the cast are full of beans and there’s an excellent supporting ensemble including some charming little ones. Merry Christmas!