"Rapunzel - A Tangled Pantomime" by Burton Joyce Players

Burton Joyce Village Hall.

My final panto of Winter 2022/2033 and, not only one of the best pantos of the season, but one of the best pantos performed by Burton Joyce Players that I've seen.

The King and the Queen had traded their daughter, Rapunzel, for a herb supposedly for medicinal purposes, from the evil Gothel. Gothel imprisoned Rapunzel in a tall tower, forbidding her from ever leaving, and all because the hair had magic powers.

Three good fairies show Rapunzel how to escape, and when she does, Gothel hires a pair of henchmen to bring her back. This is panto of course so we all know that these henchmen are not going to be the brightest, and the comedy ensues.

Does Rapunzel discover the truth about her parents? Does evil Gothel get her way? Does Nurse Hetty Hairspray get her man? Does this reviewer ever stop posing questions that we all know the answers to?

The show kicks off with a bouncy rendition of "Walking On Sunshine" which gets everyone in the mood for fun. Musically the choices are excellent and keep the audience's hands and feet busy as they clap and tap along. There were a few times that I thought a few of the singers needed to believe more in themselves and projected more, because the singing was really good.

Victoria Jones was great fun as Willy Widdle, which also gave rise to any number of naughty comments from Nurse Hetty Hairspray, who revealed that she had a bit of a soft spot for Willy, and found hard to give up on!

Nurse Hetty was played wonderfully by Christopher Mercer who camped it up almost to the maximum. I loved his version of "You'll Be Back" from the musical "Hamilton", even changing a couple of the lyrics to match the situation of being part of the panto.

Greg Nicholas (The King) and Tracey Evans (The Queen) were well cast and delivered a heartfelt duet that deserved the rapturous round of applause that was given.

Phoebe Anderson (Princess Rapunzel) delivered a right royal performance and was great fun to watch.

This is a traditional panto and providing much slapping of a thigh was Hannah Smith, who played Prince George.

Doubling up as a Soldier and a Mouse were Charlie Caudwell, Henry Chaloner and Robyn Steven, who were all very confident in their portrayals, as well as their singing.

Kerri Kirk was wonderfully evil as Gothel, and her confidence in this role made sure that she extracted every boo from the audience who lapped up every nasty comment given by Gothel, and this lovely but nasty role playing actor.

The pair of bumbling henchmen, Ball and Socket, provided loads of laughs and very quickly became firm favourites with the audience. As a duo Bertie Black and Steve Armstrong are very well matched for these roles and the physical comedy that they delivered. Their wonderful rendition of "Sweet Caroline", complete with audience participation was yet another thing the audience lapped up.

The three fairies were played by Lily Musson (Fairy Well), Isla Hilton (Fairy Good) and Missy Minxy Matthews (Fairy Nuff). The inclusion of two traditional fairies and a fairy with attitude and sass with three capital "S", played by Minxy, was a stroke of genius as it brought a fresh feel to the trio of fairies.

Great vocals from all fairies, especially with S Club 7's "Reach", and I know that Minxy has been away from the stage for over a decade, so it was good to see her performing with attitude, and her voice was as good as any of this talented company.

Molly Fitches played the Sergeant in charge of recovering Rapunzel, Sergeant Hawkeye and Steph Pinder played a villager and completed the cast.

Directed by Avril McCormick she has delivered one of the funniest pantos that I have seen in Burton Joyce and I am sure that she is proud of her production as well as her wonderful cast.

The set design is also one of the best I've seen on this stage with fourteen scene changes, often resulting in audible gasps from the audience. The sets were designed by Marilyn Carr and Christopher Mercer.

Excellent sound from Dominic Mills and equally excellent lighting from Jenny Cowan.

The costumes were sourced and created by Jenny Harwood, Lorraine Andrews, Tracey Bower and Lesley Tomlinson.

Helen Sharp did a brilliant job with the choreography.

Friday night was rammed, as we're the previous performances, and there are only a limited amount of tickets left for Saturday matinee and evening shows, which comes as no surprise after seeing this fun packed panto with its incredibly talented cast.