REVIEW: SLEEPING BEAUTY, BROADWAY THEATRE
Lewishtonia's Modern, Girl Power Twist Kisses Life into the Fairytale Classic
Award-winning panto powerhouse, Susie McKenna has waved her wand and transported Sleeping Beauty to ‘Lewishtonia,’ in this modern retelling of the classic, packed with magic, comedy, sparkling routines and West End stars.
We head to Catford’s Broadway Theatre for this high energy, girl power twist on the classic, which sees the nanny wake Sleeping Beauty with a kiss, for her to become a kick-ass warrior princess who rescues the prince with her sisterhood of sassy fairies from the brilliantly wicked Carabosse.
Every panto needs a dame, and Justin Brett steals the show as Princess Tahlia’s fabulously funny, camp and colourful NHS nurse/nanny, Nora.
In an endless succession of increasingly extra outfits, she ad-libs brilliantly with the audience, sings, dances, fires out smut and wins over big and little guests with fizzing energy.
Lisa Davina Phillip is perfectly cast as evil Carabosse, with an excellent cackle, a pack of agile wolves, and an extraordinary voice which soars across the theatre.
There are some wonderful effects, like the giant troll they defeat to rescue the prince and a UV scene, showing giant, luminous bugs, as the prince cuts through neon vines to reach the slumbering royals.
Princess Tahlia (Roshani Abbey) pleasingly replaces the usual, frilly, fainting princess with a streetwise, ass-kicking heroine, who leaves the prince waiting, fights off a gaggle of wolves and has enough breath left to belt out original numbers as well as covers of well-known hits, like Natasha Bedingfield’s I am Unwritten.
The two-hour show with interval keeps our children giggling and engaged throughout and is one to get in the diaries this Christmas. You snooze, you lose.
Broadway Theatre, Rushey Green, Catford, London, SE6 4RU. 4-31 December
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