"Sleeping Beauty" by Westfield Folkhouse Pantomime.

Mansfield Palace Theatre.

Just when you think pantomime has ended comes along one that can truly be described as "a family panto". All you have to do is dissect the contents of this show and take in the audience reactions to come to this conclusion.

The story has been revisited, sections have been replaced and characters introduced and to say that this show lasts almost two and three quarters of an hour, with interval, this panto absolutely flies. This is due to the fresh and sharp script, the likeable characters and the very witty, new jokes and the excellent song choices.

Chloe Barratt-Reid makes a beautiful Sleeping Beauty, and when teamed with her Prince, played by Amy Briscoe, who presents a wonderfully traditional Prince George. On their musical duets their voices simply melt together. Their costumes are, like every character in this panto, are spectacular.

Garry Hill, as King Hubert, is the first character we encounter on stage, and sets the precedent for the vocals with a rousing version of Kool and The Gang's "Celebration". Garry's vocals just flow and get the audience singing and clapping along from the off.

Christine Oscroft are well matched as the overbearing Queen Anne and the under the thumb King Leopold. One of many well-paired couples in this production.

At the naming ceremony of the King and Queen's firstborn, we meet the Fairies, Starlight and Sunlight, played by Mia Adams and Georgia Hallam respectively.

We then meet Dame Fairy Gaslight, played by Martin Belcher. This is my first production by this group, but I can tell that this isn't the first time that Martin has played Dame. He is great fun to watch, naturally funny and looks completely at home playing Dame.

The success of any show, especially pantomime is in the pairing of characters and this show is full of great pairings.

Malefluent is perfectly evil, but not so evil as to scare the volumes of kids attending this show. She extracts torrents of boos and hisses. Lynn Roberts is perfectly cast and looks to be loving every minute of playing the evil Malefluent.

There's a brilliant panto transformation from being Malefluent into being another dreaded creature that fills half of the stage. No spoilers as to what happens and what she morphs into, but it's done brilliantly.

Every main evil character has to have their sidekick and Malefluent's is Wormwood, who gets just as many boos and hisses as his boss. Matt Jayes plays Wormwood. Matt's voice is really strong, especially highlighted in his version of Michael Jackson's "Beat It".

In complete contrast to the dastardly duo, we have the comedy couple, aptly named, character wise Hope and Less. This meant that it introduced a novel audience participation as when they appeared on stage asking the audience who they were, the response was "Hopeless". Great fun.

This pair, Ben and Jerry (ice) creamed off much of the comedy script, which they delivered with the measured pace and timing of a professional comedy act. At times they reminded me of an early Cannon and Ball, especially with a couple of their comments.

Ben hope is played by David Gell and Jerry Less is played by Brandon Stafford. What a superb pair of comedians, loved by the audience. Their section, just prior to the final wedding scene was like being at an old school holiday camp party with their inclusion of Black Lace's "I Am The Music Man".

A lovely large ensemble who make up the People Of The Kingdom and the Babes Of the Kingdom, incorporating several local dance groups and doing their choreographer proud.

Talking of whom, Lynn Roberts must take praise for these delicious dance moves. I don't really look at the show programme to check the production team members, especially as this is the first time that I've seen Westfield, but during "Beat It", I did notice Lynn. and Malefluent's dance moves, so when I saw Lynn's name as choreographer, that one particular dance section fell right into place. Another great job.

Directed by Brandon Stafford, which also explains why this production is so tight, so well paced and so fresh.

James barrows is the Musical Director, and arranged by Martin Belcher. I stated earlier that the music chosen for "Sleeping Beauty" is excellent. I've seen the majority of pantomimes over the 2023/2024 period and often there's at least one song that is heard in other pantos. Not so in this one though!

The music helps create that special "family" feel. It's scope covers music from the 1940's onwards, and there's plenty of music to keep this show bobbing along nicely.

Arthur Askey's "The Bee Song" will be buzzing around your head for ages after leaving Mansfield Palace Theatre. Try getting "Get Me To The Church On Time", from the musical "My Fair Lady" out of your ears as well. With songs from "The Greatest Showman" and "Oliver", Michael Buble, Michael Jackson and Cliff Richard's "I Could Easily Fall In Love With You", which was incidentally especially written for a panto that Cliff appeared in, in the 1960's, this soundtrack has to be one of my favourites for this Winter period.

I loved the script, especially the localised jokes and the ones about pot holes in Mansfield. Driving from Nottingham to Mansfield along the A60 obviously struck a chord with me. Westfield Folkhouse Pantomimes have an extremely talented and sharp script writing team.

Great sets, amazing costumes and make up, and a slick backstage team ensure that this production is on a par with any professional show. It's smooth and slick an shows that when all areas work like this, the results are nothing short of excellent.

Sound design is often a bug bear with me, but I am really pleased to say that everything to do with this area was perfect. No missed cues, nothing, and this on their opening performance.. Rob Beech is responsible for the Sound design and his experience with professional touring productions and festivals is evident.

Not sure who is responsible for the lighting design, but whoever you are, the design was brilliant as was the operation of the lighting design. Spot on!

"Sleeping Beauty" is an absolute beauty of a pantomime, perfectly pitched to all ages, and I think that the fact that the first show was sold out and went without a hitch, is a tribute to the obvious hard work that has gone into this production.

"Sleeping Beauty" is at Mansfield Palace Theatre until Sunday 21 January. Consider yourself lucky to get a ticket for this one.