"The Last Noel" by Chris Bush

Nottingham Lace Market Theatre.

Tess’s parents work for the emergency services and that has always meant that Christmas celebrations have to be a moveable feast. Today is no different, and Tess, her Gran, and her Uncle Mike are once more awaiting their arrival. But something is different this time, and if everything is changing, then maybe the stories they tell have to change too?

 

Maybe traditions need to be reworked to fit in with this new narrative?

 

They pass the time telling their stories in turns, breaking off for the odd musical interlude. As they do, we see a picture of how one family forms its traditions, and we recognise how those traditions matter most, when there are problems on the horizon.

 

This is a bittersweet story about three generations of a family getting ready to celebrate Christmas. It is a play with songs, laughter, melancholy, mulled beverages, and a kiss of nostalgia.

Ezra Roberts plays Tess and with the other two characters, I'm not going to tell you what stories they all tell, but she relates that transition period between school and University and the physical and mental changes that go into maturing a person, but there's still that touch of sadness in certain parts.

Lesley Brown plays Alice, The Gran. Always worrying about getting things sorted in time for Christmas, her family arguing and relating tales from the past. There was a really lovely emotional piece in the show which you probably won't see on future performances which really drew emotion from the audience, and as this is staged in the Studio upstairs, you're only feet away from the actors. Alice really shows the importance and need for family at this time of year, and highlights that Christmas is not always a happy time for everyone.

Uncle Mike is played by Michael Radford. This is a great character. Uncle Mike is gay and part of his story focuses on a crush that he has on a straight man and is tender as well as gently comical.

All three of the tales that are told within the 75 minutes of stage time are wonderfully descriptive and much of the script is in rhyme, giving almost the feel of a grown up pantomime, but with pathos. The style of story-telling draws you in and almost confides in you as invited guests.

Talking of which, I urge you to get there at least fifteen minutes before the show starts because all three creative an interactive pre show activity session; Thursday evening (opening night) even saw the audience singing carols even before the start of the play.

I mentioned that throughout the play there were musical interludes. These were all original pieces, lyrically by Chris Bush, but the music side of the interludes was composed and played on the keyboard by Sam Marshall, the Musical Director. If you can imagine the thoughtfulness of Jason Robert Brown with the playfulness of Victoria Wood, that's the kind of sound you can expect from the songs. Simply gorgeous.

Directed by Laurie Owen, assisted by Ali Lit, this is just the kind of play to leave you feeling festive but thoughtful with a side of melancholy, with the pace varying throughout to reflect the variety of emotions that Laurie required the three wonderful actors to give.

Lighting Design is by Nick Gale, and there is one section where the lights are dimmed, creating that lovely warm Christmassy feeling that only the glow from the Christmas tree lights can provide.

• Sound Design is by Gareth Morris. With the intimacy of the Studio surroundings, and of course with no need for electronic enhancement of the voice, the sound from the keyboard was well balanced through the speakers to accompany the singing and the background musical sections under the script sections. A lovely blend; and then there's the sound effects that are used which are also well executed and mixed.
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• Stage Managed by Rebecca ‘Bex’ Steele, assisted by Anthony Garton.

  

  
  
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• The Costumes are by Hazel Salisbury and are apt for the characters, distinguishing the age gaps between the three characters.

Although this is staged in the upstairs performing space, I had the chance to have a good look around the set and you'd be surprised at the amount of props used, and all relevant. Several items that took me back to my Christmases as a child. The props are managed by Freya Morgan.

This is not your usual "Deck the halls fah la la la la, la la la la" Christmas fare because of the wonderful way that the script takes you to a lovely warm happy place from your past, to a decidedly darker place, and just as quick the family is brought back and the virtual family hug wraps itself around the characters and gives you reason to smile again with another lovely dollop of comedy.

"The Last Noel" is at the Lace Market Theatre until Saturday 20 December, but the whole week is practically sold out, and I can see why this is the case. There's also a relaxed performance on Wednesday 17 December, supported by The Lasting Project.

 "Little Shop Of Horrors"

Gilly Archer Theatre.

Bilborough College.

From an audience point of view, this is one musical that you can't go wrong with. It has everything going for it, comedy, great songs, romance as well as a dark, macabre man eating plant that lives on human flesh and blood, sado-masochism, greed, murder, lies and deceit. And all this in a couple of hours!

The story follows a nerdy florist shop worker, Seymour Krelborn, who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. Up until then the shop was on the skids, well it is located on Skid Row, and on the verge of closing down, but this new, exciting and rare plant that Seymour had discovered was going to save the day as it attracted new customers to the shop. Rapidly the new plant, Audrey 2, transforms Seymour from zero to hero, but what a cost to Seymour, the flower shop owner, Mr Mushnik and his other shop worker, and Seymour's secret crush, Audrey.

Seymour, the nerdy florist assistant, is played by Ashton Knight. He has a lovely physicality in his acting which brings Seymour to clumsy life. His wide eyed-look also projects the nervousness of the character well. Great voice as well; maybe a little too loud in some of the big notes, but that could be toned down with the sound department, but his softer tones are really nice to hear. Good leading man qualities.

Mr Mushnik, the flower shop owner, is played by Jake-Logan Loftus. Again the volume may need to be toned down slightly, but this also shows some excellent projection in his voice, and I love the consistent accent, even in song. Jake-Logan is going to be a strong character actor in the future.

Audrey is played by Caitlin Creswick. Another expressive actor as I noticed that when Seymour's name was mentioned by Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette towards the start of the musical, Audrey's eyes lit up. Singing registers are the same as Ashton with the softer scale sounding great but the bigger notes just a tad loud, which makes me think that this could be due to getting the volume on the mic packs equalised, or just the fact that the cast may not be used to using the mics.

Audrey II, the blood-thirsty, man-eating flora is voiced by Illijah Weaviung, and what a voice! Illijah has one of those really soulful and, I don't really like to use this advective with a college production, but dirty and bluesy voice, giving a real seedy side to the character of Audrey II.

Audrey II is operated by Grace Tomlinson and Katie Peel. In a production like this where a large puppet is being operated and separate to the puppet's voice, sometimes there could be timing issues to make the jaws of the puppet coincide with the script being spoken. There were a couple of late movements but this is a big puppet to operate and on the whole the timing was pretty well matched to Illijah's vocalisation of Audrey II. This role as puppeteer is not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination.

Orin Scrivello, the bullying, sado-masochistic sleazeball of a Dentist, is played by Tyler Peters. This role is one where you can go over the top and because the character has such an over the top personality, it would still be in line with the character description. Tyler's hip thrusting accentuated the sado-masochistic perversions of the Dentist, and I loved the look of absolute glee in his eyes as he fondled his dental apparatus and the thought of using the novocaine. Perfect casting and I am sure that Tyler loved playing Orin.

Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette are played by Niamh Hunter-Woods, Emilia-Mai Owen and Connie Tegerdine respectively.  Connie I know well from performing parts at the Nottingham Arts Theatre. This threesome provided the close-knit harmonies for the Sixties style, trio straight out of a Phil Spector production studio. These three provided the first set of tingles for the evening with their well-blended vocals with just a few well-placed vocal acrobatics.

There's a big ensemble in this show with some playing minor roles and they are Lowri Moore (Customer), Lucy Horton (Interviewer), Emily Crompton-Brown (Mr Bernstein), Mio Davies-Bright (Mrs Luce), Eva Moss (Skip-Snip) - marvellous accent dahling!, Fox Reeve (Patrick Martin), Joseph Coke (Wino #1) and Daniel Adamson (Wino #2) - both excellent character acting drunks and I must mention Daniel's energy throughout, especially in the choreographed ensemble pieces, and he looked like he was having the best time performing from his smile.

The rest of the ensemble were made up of Emma Carnegie-Brown, Kayla Burgess, Lexie Hart, Tian-Tian Gosling-Lewis, Sam Curtis, Mary Scothern, Jasmine Armstrong, Esme Martin, Alexa Tomlinson, Niamh Burrows, Connie Webster and Thomas Pears. Every one of them projected so much energy.

Directed by Grace Tomlinson and Katie Peel, they presented an energy packed and fun show that sped along at a mighty pace. I will here though just mention one thing that I spotted. When Seymour goes to visit Orin he carries the gun in his pocket and does not have a baseball cap on. These are important details as the reason why Mr Mushnik is called into the police station is that they wanted Mushnik to identify the baseball cap as Seymour's and also to ask why the Mushnik carrier bag was at the dentists. I have seen this musical so many times over the years and spotted this tiny faux pas as soon as Seymour entered the dentists.

Set and Props Designers for the show are Anna Carter, Nimrat Gill, Alexandra Bonam, Silas Patrick, Kelchi Binch, Maryam Welbourne, Ash Kirkham and Holly Allsop. What a brilliant set design it is as well. Even though the main part of the set is constantly in view, there are a few changes, additions and adjustments throughout the show, as well as a clock with movable hands. A resounding success for the Stage Manager, Katie Peel, Deputy Stage Manager, Grace Tomlinson and the Backstage Crew, Milan Wijesuriya and Khadijah Usman.

Choreographed by Evie Swetnam-Prince. From the big ensemble numbers to the smaller choreographed pieces like the wonderful "Mushnik & Son" piece, the choreography was brilliant fun to watch and, as I've said earlier, all you have to do is look at the faces of the dancers to see the joy that they got out of these dance routines to know that the performers were enjoying this show just as much as the audience.

I'm not normally a massive fan of backing tracks for musicals but the one used for this performance worked well, and sounded really good. Performers have to be really on their game and have their timing spot on because if you miss any cue on a backing track, you just have to try and catch up. Fortunately every one was on their game and the timing for the tracks were all spot on. I would have liked the backing turned up just a notch though.

Sound Design is by Mhari Sanderson and Matthew Price, and I've already mentioned part of the sound earlier in this review. I know that this was the first performance with an audience and so tweaks can be made now they have the heard how everything sounds with an audience, as that does make a difference in volume levels. Apart from that, the sound was really good and the sound quality seems to get better every year.

Lighting Design is by Camille Capon and James Wilfred. Absolutely no issues at all.

The Costume Designer is Esme Barnes and Deputy Costume Designer Kawa Emec. Loved all the sparkle at the end.

Make Up Designers are Maddison Vowles and Emma Jane Chan. Audrey's black eye make up looked really realistic and painful.

Hair Design is by Amiyah Britton and Alayah Myers.

The show is such a lot of fun to watch and I could see from the cast, also to perform in. The soundtrack is one of my favourites with songs like "Suddenly Seymour", "Somewhere That's Green", "It's the Gas", "Ska Doo", "Skid Row", "Feed Me" and of course the title track, all performed with great energy at Bilborough College by this cast. This is a pre Christmas treat for all the family so go and have a cracker of a time!

"Little Shop Of Horrors" is currently being performed at Bilborough College until 11 December.

 "The Tortoise And The Hare"

Derby Studio Theatre.

The lovely thing about reviewing theatre is that you get to see such a variety of productions, and when it comes around to Christmas, you also get to see some of the wonderful theatre that is produced for children. Every year Derby Theatre present a children's piece of theatre and this year it's "The Tortoise And The Hare", a story I remember so well from my childhood, and a story that I have read many times to my children over the years.

This story is a little different though and is set at Forest Green School on their annual sports day. Hare and Tortoise are pitted against each other having a race but Hare is so confident he will win that he takes a nap, while the tortoise, though slow, continues to move steadily, eventually crossing the finish line first. The story's moral is that "slow and steady wins the race," meaning perseverance and determination can overcome natural talent when it is combined with arrogance and idleness. There are several other moralistic messages here as well, like appreciating each other's strengths and abilities. All great messages for younger minds; older minds may also learn something from this show as well!

There's some adorable puppets that help tell the story, the actors are masters in the art of story telling, especially with the age range that this story is aimed at, and some ridiculously catchy pieces of original music and songs throughout. Writing music and songs that younger children will find catchy is never easy but these songs are brilliantly catchy, and there's even a bit of Queen in there as well.

The actors all come out into the audience before the show starts to chat to the youngsters, straight away breaking down any barriers and making everyone feel comfortable with the characters and the venue.

Laura Goulden and EJ Raymond share the role of Tortoise. The way that this works is EJ signs most of the role and Laura is the more visual physical element of Tortoise. Both actors work equally as hard and both are amazing with the entertaining side of the roles.

Amy Helena and Adam Robertson share the role of the Hare. As with Tortoise, Adam is the more physical visualisation of the character and Amy provides the majority of the signing, although all four character actors do sign.

Mr Aesop is played by Ivan Stott, who is also the Sound Designer and Composer of the original music you hear throughout the show. Ivan is a brilliant actor, and not just for children, and chances are, if you've attended any shows at Derby Theatre of late, you'll also have heard Ivan's work in the sound department there as well. 

All performances include integrated BSL, creative captions and integrated audio description. All five actors are incredibly talented visual actors, at times making everything bigger and more bolder and the kids love that. This is truly theatre made for children and completely inclusive for all.

Sarah Brigham, who is a force to be reckoned with this Christmas at Derby Theatre, is the Writer and Director and I like that she has taken a well worn fable of Aesop's and made it relative by incorporating it into a scenario that children know about; the annual sports day. I also loved the silliness of some of the pairings i.e. the worm going in for the high jump, the millipede in the three legged race, the spider doing the shot put, very silly, and what I love about creative and clever writing for young children, and young children at heart. 

John Barber designed and directed the marvellous tortoise and hare puppets that you see. The hare being a cross between Hartley Hare (if you're too young, Google it) and Brer Rabbit. The tortoise puppet was uber cute. 

Rachana Jadhav has designed the set which folds out to create a threefold set with the exterior of the school, the school gym as well as the sports day scene. All three scenes have moving and removable sections and had been constructed and designed with great thought and also to take up the minimum of space.

The costumes have been designed by Tim Heywood and immediately you could tell which actors were playing which roles just by looking at the costumes.

Lighting Designer is Jessica Brigham, assisted by Stephen Crofts. 

Ben Glover's creative captioning make sure that this children's show ticks all the boxes for theatre equality. There's a lot of visual cleverness and thought gone into this captioning as well because if the captioning was describing something that was going into the distance, i.e. the description of the javelin being thrown, the words would also recede into the distance, creating another visual element to the script. The section with the Queen song also created excitement visually and graphically and along with the song was edited beautifully. Inclusive theatre for children is really exciting to watch from a technical point of view, but there's a lot of work that goes into children's theatre nowadays.

Ben Wilson is the Audio Description Consultant.

Donna Mullings is the BSL Consultant.

Movement Director is Stacey Green.

The show's Producers are Nur Khairlyah and Stuart Allen.

A classic story given a fresh coat of paint for a modern audience, but still as entertaining and a great way to drip feed moralistic messages without them ever noticing, and all through the power of entertainment and theatre.

"The Tortoise And The Hare" is at Derby Studio Theatre until Saturday 3 January 2026 and is a real treat for children of any age.

Photographs by Graeme Braidwood.

 "Robin Hood & The Babes In The Wood"

Spotlight Theatre.

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

Set in the woodland of Sherwood Forest and the Castle at Nottingham, Nanny Annie is bringing the Babes to the care of their uncle, the villainous Sheriff. However, things don't go to plan and Robin Hood discovers that the two Babes have been left in the forest and so takes them under his protection. The Sheriff of Nottingham is desperate to capture Robin Hood and his band of Merry Folk so he arranges an archery contest at the Goose Fair that he knows Robin won't be able to resist. 

Who will win the contest? Who will win the heart of Maid Marian? 

Hemi Lewis plays the role of Robin Hood, confidently taking charge with hands on hips and plenty of thigh slapping, as in the old tradition of pantomime.

Maid Marian is the beautiful beau for our hero Robin, and it's plain to see why both Sophie Benner and Tegan King were chosen for this shared role. Sunday evening I saw Tegan.

Lady Catherine is played by Madelyn Pritchard and Emily Holder in another shared role and on Sunday evening Madelyn was Maid Marian's right hand woman.

Little John is played by Oliver Smith and who else could have played this role as Oliver, if you've never seen him before is very tall.

Mike Pearson, who has swapped one set of long flowing robes for another set, as Friar Tuck. It's still funny to me to see a man of the cloth dancing around like Mike does in the show.

JK Smith is Nanny Annie. Great fun to watch, as are all of these people on stage, and some brilliant costumes to go.

Silly Billy is played by Patrick McChrystal and I love the physical bit that he puts in after saying his character name on stage, Silly Billy Goodbody. You have to see it to know what I mean! Straight away he gets the audience behind him with his "ey up me duck" call and response on every stage entrance. Panto as it should be!

Graham Ward is the evil Sherrif Of Nottingham. The audience took a bit of time to get into proper full on booing mode, but by the second half Graham had them booing as soon as he stepped on stage and eating out of his hand.

Joe Butler plays Fairy Clumber, named not after Clumber park, but because this funny fairy is just a little clumsy. I still can't believe that this is Joe's first role as a panto fairy, but she shows that she can play nice just as well as she can play nasty, as in the past. Joe's version of Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet" was just one of many highlights for me, especially as it's not the easiest of songs to perform. Brilliant costume by the way and love those wellies!

Luca Smith plays one half of a fabulously funny pairing named Muck and Tilly Wishart on Sunday evening plays Rake. These roles are also shared by Bethany Wear as Muck while Shantanu Bhumbra, one of the busiest local actors over the past year, plays Rake. 

George Young is Allan-A-Dale, Much, The Miller's Son, is played by Preston Nash, another busy young actor over the last 12 months, David of Doncaster is played by Jo Holt in her debut for Spotlight Theatre. Helena Cave and Daisy Donohue share the part of Will Scarlett with Daisy performing on Sunday evening's show,  

The adult company in this high energy panto are Sophie Benner, Helena Cave, Daisy Donoghue, Alannah Hills, Jess Henley-Marshall, Emily Holder, Tegan King, Madelyn Pritchard and Hermione Cumbers.

There are two teams performing over the panto period, Team Walesby, who consist of Ellie-Mai Hummel, Caitlin Robinson, Grace Moroziuk, Karin Hurst, Willow Hunter, Zara Halse, Madeline Bisby, Ruby Hall, Gracie Laxton, Erin Mills, Olive Jefford, Megan Holder and Freya Ireson.

Team Wellow consist of Mia Jacks, Orla Donohoe, Emma Price, Sarah Fisher, Kessia Gudgin, Oscar Jack, Hattie Duffin, Olivia Finch, Evie Andrew, Izzy, Jess Blackham, Miley Brown and Clio Wilkinson-Dunstan. Team Wellow was the team performing on Sunday evening.

The roles of River and Willow, The Babes,  are shared by Atia Morrell and Delilah Fyles-Carr (River) and Ameelie Booth and Ella Rhodes (Willow). Sunday evening I watched Ella and Delilah.

Such a large and hard working cast that I hope that I haven't inadversely missed anyone out.

Directed and written by Amanda hall and Liam Petruccio-Hall, this is yet another big success in the writing department weaving energy and fun into every role. A nice blend of golden oldie jokes with some fresh ones thrown in for good measure.

Choreographed by Megan Leahy, assisted by Charlotte Barrington and Laura McChrystal. This is a massive cast and every single one of this cast not only looked as if they were having the best time dancing on that stage, they made sure that we, the audience members also had a ball watching that energy just explode through dance.

Musical Director is Patrick McChrystal, the singing from the whole cast was hot, especially in songs like "Hot To Go" and "Apt", which by the way has been turned into an acronym for Awesome Party Tree which made the inclusion of the song perfect. The whole company songs like "I'm A Believer", "Step Into Christmas" and the two opening act numbers "Boogie Nottingham" (a parody of "Boogie Wonderland") and "Wake Up Boo" just raised the energy so much and got people in the mood for a good time.

Set Design is by Amanda Hall, Laura McChrystal and Mike Pearson and looking around the set there are some nice additions like the two lions among the shiny, bright set which moves seamlessly between Goose fair, The Market Place and Sherwood Forest.

Costume design is by Sophie Petruccio-Hall and Spotlight Theatre Arts CIC, and another highlight of this show. The Sherrif's costume really creates that dark aura visually while the other characters are easily recognised by costumes alone, especially Will Scarlet. Fairy Clumber's is great fun and then of course there's Nanny Annie's creations.

Lighting Design is by Oliver Read who created the usual on stage explosion of colour and this was operated by George Wilson and Follow Spot Operators being Cathy Bodman and Cris Brawn.

Sound Designer is Rob Kettridge who produced the first perfect sound design for any of the pantos that I have seen this year to date, and that includes the Theatre Royal show.

There's projection which also helped advertise upcoming shows as well as a pricelist for items available for kids to wave around and wear, but also provided projection of the words for the singalong section of the show. This area of expertise is the responsibility of College Street Technical Services.

I keep mentioning just what a large cast this is, which gives big responsibility to stage management and Laura McChrystal, assisted by Roman Moroziuk, who I am sure is anew addition to the Spotlight family. Deputy Stage manager is Nigel Newton and Charlotte Barrington.

I've deliberately not gone on about each individual performance for the simple reason that this team work as one and they all come together to deliver a fun and family friendly pantomime, working like a well oiled machine.

"Robin Hood & The Babes In The Wood" is at the Nottingham Arts Theatre until Sunday 21 December.

 "Dick Whittington"

Derby Arena.

I have checked as extensively as I can and this is the only Dick that is available around this and the Derby area this festive season. Written by Morgan Brind, he weaves his very own special panto magic throughout the age old story of Dick and his cat, as they travel south in search of golden pavements, as well as ridding Hotel Stilton of the infestation of rats, led by Queen Rat herself.

The Hotel is ran by Alderman Fitzwarren and his daughter Alice Fitzwarren, who falls for Dick in a big way, but after a nasty framing case by Queen Rat, Dick and his pussy are thrown out into the streets, and as they head back to derby from London, Dick gets a message to turn back and prove his innocence.

To do this he has to disguise himself, along with Tommy the Cat, to get aboard the new cruise liner that the Alderman has bought, but things do not go as ship shape as planned!

Morgan plays Dame Mabel, who starts off as the Dame on reception at Hotel Stilton. He is his usual cheeky self and the costumes are as outrageous as ever, you wouldn't expect anything less, and the audience are not disappointed. The writing is as clever as ever with even more wordplay than ever. The jokes are predominantly new, and are funny, cheesy, corny, saucy and even the odd old joke makes you smile. 

There's a sketch which involves flags of the world with even more clever wordplay which I can't remember seeing before as well as a wonderful sketch inside the ship and the renovation of the broken down ship's engine, again utilising clever wordplay which you really have to listen to in order to get the full comedic effect. Both new to me and both very funny. It must be increasingly difficult to write new sketches that have not been done before and to continually make them funny for the large age range that pantomimes attract; then again Morgan's writing has always been exceptional, and he surrounds himself with talented people who he knows how to write for and who will land his lines perfectly.

Starring alongside Derby's favourite Dame is Coronation Street's Wendi Peters as Queen Rat. The gorgeous Wendi is a multi talented actor who can perform solo shows, star in classics like "Sister Act" and then, in the New Year, star in "Glorious" as American Socialite, Florence Foster Jenkins, who was known for her flamboyant costumes, enigmatic performances, and decidedly off-key voice. Nothing off-key to be ratted out in this role though as Wendi pops in and out of the story with some ratten, sorry rotten threats. Having seen Wendi in full on musical mode before, it was no surprise to me of her dancing and singing abilities, both of which are in evidence as Queen Rat.

There are several familiar faces to see in this year's panto including Kristian Cunningham who takes the lead role as Dick Whittington. As ever, super confident and immediately likeable. His disguise to get on the Alderman's cruise liner will make you smile, and I don't think I'll look at Taylor Swift in the same way again without thinking of Kristian. His voice shows his musical theatre experience as it cuts through the massive auditorium that is Derby Arena, and when he brings the vocals down he gives you chills.

Roddy Peters is back, this year as The Alderman. Morgan has written some wonderful wordplay sections for Roddy this year, and one thing that you notice when you see Morgan's work, is that he is very generous with the comedy lines and the wordplay for his co-stars. Two of the funniest sketches involve Morgan, Kristian and Roddy, namely the "flags" sketch and the "boiler room" sketch, and it's not just the audience that are rocking in that scene.

Also making a return to the Derby Arena stage is Nicola Martinus Smith in the role of Fairy Bow Bells. Of course with the setting being down south, there's plenty of rhyming from Fairy Bow Bells, as well as Queen Rat. Nicola pops in and out as much as Queen Rat, and they even get to perform a duet together which is great fun to see.

Playing Alice is Ruby Hewitt, a new name to me, but a real find for this panto audience. She looks gorgeous and can deliver a funny and saucy line without making it sound too salacious.

Tommy The Cat is played with great athleticism by Kai Harris. A very agile dancer and performer and a welcome addition to this year's pantomime, I have a feline that this won't be his only appearance in a Little Wolf pantomime as he was a hit with the audience.

The good looking and equally energetic ensemble are made up of Chloe Hopcroft, Alfie Aves, Anna King, Luke Cartledge, Evie Storr and Dominic Wood.

There are three teams of young performers, not sure which one was on tonight but the teams are....

Team Paws, who are Summer Featherstone, Alice Cureton, Madeline Sharpe, Betsy Stevens, Esmie Smith-Cockayne (now there's a name that I remember having seen before), Chloe Ashford, Louis Gillespie and Ellie Hockey.

Team Tails, who are Demi Nixon, Scarlett Hunt, Emmie Gibson, Heidi Skates, Maisie Baker, Rhaea Parker, James Breen and Tilly-Lou Moore.

Team Whiskers, who are Verity Watson, Maria McGinty, Alyssa Lemmey, Laila Owen, Wallis Sutton, Emily Box, Wilbert Jay Leysa and Lilimay Tipton.

Directed by Mark Chatterton, he made sure that the pantomime pace was kept up to speed, and this show really does go at a pace and a half!

Choreographed by Matthew Wesley. there are some lovely choreographed pieces here, especially the brilliant "Abracadabra" that Wendi is involved with; a magical part of this year's Christmas fare. The ensemble numbers are big and bouncy with the stage being filled with action. I also loved the "Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat" section which, as anyone who has seen this choreographed piece from "Guys n Dolls" will know is a great section for a choreographer.

Musical Director is Ong Cheng Kan on piano, who led his trio of Corrina Etherington (Reeds) and John Clark (Percussion). How can so much music come from just three musicians?

Costumes always play a massive part in any show, but when it's panto they need to stand out, especially the dame's costumes, and they certainly do, just take a look at Mabel's "beached" costume, or should that be "beach" costume and her "tap" costume, so innovative and so clever. 

Sound Design is by David Cooper, and for the majority of the show, everything was perfect, but then there was the dreaded mic pack issue, and this time it was Kristian's pack that gave up the ghost, and even the hand held mic he used after that didn't work properly. A few missed cues but on the whole didn't mar the show, you know what a picky so and so I am with sound and getting everything just right. That said, the mix between music and vocals was good and I could hear every word, even on the back tier.

Lighting Designer is Alexandra Stafford. Big, bright and beautiful (wouldn't that make a great title for a song for musical theatre?), well that's what the lighting was like for this panto. Top marks from me.

There are some lovely music choices used in this panto, some I didn't even know, but worked well with the storyline. Brilliantly catchy songs like Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra", Huntr X's "Golden" and Rose and Bruno Mars' "Apt" -  songs that are featured in other local pantomimes, but pop classics like Village People's "In The Navy" and musical theatre biggies like "I Can Hear the Bells" from "Hairspray" and the aforementioned "Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat" just keep those toes tapping. It's also the third pantomime that has a section on "Strictly Come Dancing", which is also quite fun.

Little Wolf Pantomimes are always going to be a hit with me because of the quality of the writing, especially with this years' abundance of word play being used so skilfully, the enthusiasm from the cast and dancers and the ability to make me smile, even at the cheesiest of jokes, and the quality of the newly written gags.

Just watch out for abundance this year in the water cannons! There's no escape, wherever you are sat.

"Dick Whittington" is at Derby Arena until Wednesday 31 December.

 "The Little Mermaid"

Neville Studios, Nottingham Playhouse.

The Little Mermaid dreams of a life on the land but finds herself out of her depth when her dreams finally come true.  Her Dad has forbidden her from going up to the surface. Marina bumps into  the Sea Witch, who promises her legs so that she can go on land, but there's a catch! Marina has to steal the biggest diamond in the world for Tamara, the Sea Witch, and to make sure that Marina brings the diamond back within 24 hours, tamara has taken Marina's voice, with the promise that she will get her voice back when she returns to Tamara with the diamond!

This is one of those gorgeous pieces of theatre designed especially for the younger theatre goer, but even if you're a little out of the age range of 3 - 8 years old, believe me, you'll very soon get lost in the narration of this piece of theatre.

The cast of two, Hannah Breedon (Marina) and Ollie West are brilliant at keeping the little ones transfixed and at ease; so much that the young audience members soon have no qualms about joining in with a dance and there's almost like a sense of panto call and response at times.

Keeping children's attention is not easy - I used to be a Children's entertainer many moons ago, so I know what hard work it can be, but Hannah and Ollie breeze through the stage time with this story and ensuring that the young, and not that young, are completely entertained with this lovely twist on the Little Mermaid story.

The story is written by Joe Venable and Rob Gathercole and have given a fresh feel to the story using modern phrases and some clever uses of modern pop culture i.e. mentioning that at the karaoke bar there are singers like Sardina Carpenter, Billie Eelish and, my favourite, Hammer Ed Sheeran. It really feels as if the writers have looked through the eyes of the young to see the world in their eyes. It's very clever, does not patronise and is great fun.

Directed by Alessandra Davison the motion of this ocean is non stop with either one of both actors being on stage or setting up the stage. Ollie gets to play several characters as well as the puppetry, and there are some quick changes of costume involved as he moves from one character to the other in the time that it takes him to go behind the scenery at one end and appear at the other end. The timing for this production with stage time is very closely observed, never giving the audience time to fidget, and always having a focus onstage for them to concentrate on.

The set and costumes are designed by Emma Howson with Ella Barraclough being the Costume Supervisor. The set includes a screen where a video is constantly on with some of the important words and phrases are on view, as well as pictures and cartoon characters. This is in the large rear set design which doubles as all of the other settings, whether that be a laboratory, Dad's Shed, the safe where the diamond is housed or the backdrop to the blue, blue underwater scenes. All very cleverly adaptable to change from one to the other with the simplest of adjustments while being visually attractive. 

The costumes are clever, especially Tamara's which is designed to show at first glance that this character is the bad guy in this show. Ollie's other costumes are designed to be quick to swap and change into while Hannah's show straight away that she is the Little Mermaid in the title of the piece, There's lots of shiny, reflective pieces of clothing to remind us that we are, most of the time, under the sea.

Sam Osborne is in charge of the lighting design as well as the video programming and the caption design that you will see in the show is thanks to Matt Powell. As I said, all very pleasing on the eye and easy to attract the attention of a young audience.

The songs used in this show are so incredibly catchy, and quite sophisticated and clever for children's theatre. The song "Diamond Geezer" which Tamara sings could just as well have been a song from Madness, or even Olly Murs who has the same kind of swag musically, and is very difficult to get out of my head! The opening, and closing song, "Blue" is also one that you will have in your brain, and then wonder where you've heard it from in a few days' time.

The soundscape that you hear as you take your seats and wait for the show to start is so relaxing that you are in danger of relaxing just a little too much!

Stage Manger is Ali Bakewell, whose name I have mentioned in the past, but it was lovely to meet her face to face. Ali organised the youngsters at ground level, which not only made sure that Ollie and Hannah had a close up audience, but also gave the mums and dads a spell of breathing space as well, I imagine.

This is one show that will not leave you feeling blue after you leave and will provide some lovely memories for the children and even some moralistic talking points when the young ones get home. Or it may just be a wonderfully entertaining piece of escapism theatre for a family to enjoy for an hour.

"The Little Mermaid" is at the Nottingham Playhouse Neville Suite until Saturday 3 January 2026, so there's plenty of time to treat yourself, and bring the little ones along as an excuse.

Photographs courtesy of Michael Aiden Photography.