Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

A deliciously evil Linda Lusardi, a dose of the Grumbleweeds and seven dwarfs thrown in. What better way to spend a wet and wild night in Wolverhampton?

This is the Grand Theatre panto that had a big job on its hands to live up to last year's Biggins-fest, which was declared the best ever seen in the city.

Click here to see more pictures from the show.

But good news. Ticket sales this year are up - and people who have spent their money won't be disappointed because Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a cracker.

Its cast have pulled it off with a wonderfully pacy, witty and imaginative production that ended with an ovation from a thrilled family audience.

Last year the Grand panto wowed with 3D graphics that leapt from the stage and bounced around the auditorium.

This year there were more traditional tricks to enjoy, as Linda sailed magically into the audience carried only, it appeared, by a cloud of dry ice.

And there were jokes – lots of them. The Grumbleweeds packed 25 years of showbiz experience into squeezing every drop of laughter they could from the Grand last night. So, out came the wonky stool (complete with excruciating sound effects), and the exploding box complete with dead dove and associated floating feathers. The duo, alias Robin Colvill as Muddles and Graham Walker as Oddjob, were slapped around, pushed about and kicked in delicate areas. They dressed as Teletubbies, Ali G and Ozzy Osbourne and in one sketch nothing but a pair of roller skates and a smile.

Credit should be given to star Sam Kane, alias Prince William of Wednesbury, who doubles up as director for this production. He has clearly put as much energy behind scenes into ensuring music, song and comedy knit together perfectly as he does into his performance when on stage. He admitted before the run started that he is a bag of nerves during shows, always lurking in the wings to ensure props are prepared and cues go correctly. If so, he hides it well, as he appears to be having a ball when it is his turn under the spotlight.

Sam and wife Linda have been to Wolverhampton for panto before and clearly know the locals don't mind a bit of ribbing.

The former model and Emmerdale star hammed it up a treat, telling the audience it wasn't difficult being the fairest of them all in this city as it is "full of ugly women". To a chorus of boos, Wolverhampton was later described as a "shabby little village, only good for keeping the wind off Birmingham". At least Bilston got off lightly. Its streets are paved with gold, apparently.

Linda may be in her 50s, but she looked great dressed in black as Queen Lucretia. And she genuinely stole the show in many scenes, clearly revelling in her role as bad girl as she taunted the audience with relish, answering back cat-calls from the stalls and brushing aside whistles from the grand circle. She and Sam obviously love working together – even if he did at one point ask someone in the front row: "Imagine being married to that hag!"

Main characters in pantos tend to get overlooked somewhat – they are the straight men and women for others to bounce off. But there were plenty of opportunities for Snow White, actress Eloise Irving, and the X Factor's Niki Evans, as Fairy Loreelei, to show off their singing skills in a number of set-piece song and dance routines.

Praise too to the cast of dwarfs, played alternately by two teams of children, who had the awkward job of synchronising their movements to a recorded soundtrack, but were faultless throughout. The scenes with the dwarfs were always going to be difficult once the decision was made not to bring in a specialised troupe, but they did their job in knitting together a plot that played second fiddle to the show's set-piece sketches and routines.

The Snow White set alternated between Queen Lucretia's castle and the forest as the inevitable storyline was played out. There were some nice touches, with the hologram mirror that descended at intervals to torment the Queen and the dwarfs' home in the forest, which stripped open to reveal a two-storey cottage complete with a laid table and seven unmade beds.

But the strength of this show was not in technical wizardry or the spectacular. It was in the charm of the performance, emphasised all the more by an intimate theatre where an audience can be brought into the action with ease.

So, the finale was a Wolverhampton version of the 12 Days of Christmas, complete with toilet rolls, pans, rubber gloves and bars of toffee, where the rolls inevitably ended up being chucked into the stalls and one audience member was forced on to stage as she brought another stray item back.

By the end the whole house was on its feet. It was a Grand night had by all, and there are many hours of laughter to come between now and the end of the run on January 22.

Review by Mark Drew.