Saturday, 2nd December 2023 at Harrogate Theatre.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Reviewer: Sarah Whitaker
I took my partner and 5-year-old son to see Harrogate Theatre’s production of Dick Whittington and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Directed by Marcus Romer and co-written by David Brown and Phil Lowe, it delivers just the right amount of sparkle, laughter and classic panto audience participation required to delight both adults and children alike.
Dick, played capably by Naail Ishaq, sets off from Harrogate (of course) to seek his fortune in London Town, joined along the way by Tammy the cat (Anna Campkin) – who definitely can’t talk – shhh! Tammy can certainly sing though which is not surprising given her extensive list of theatre credits. In fact, the musical numbers performed by the whole cast are particularly strong throughout the production, looking and sounding polished and well-rehearsed (musical director: Nick Lacey; choreography: David Kar-Hing Lee).
Once in London, Dick and Tammy befriend Idle Jack (Harrogate panto stalwart, Tim Stedman), Sarah the Cook (Harry Wyatt) and Alice Fitzwarren (Faye Weerasinghe). Hilarity and adventure ensue as they try and beat King Rat (Michael Lambourne) to the magic sword – with a little help from Fairy Bow-bells (Shannon Rewcroft). Spoiler alert: of course in the end, good triumphs over evil and King Rat is defeated in a well-choreographed fight scene (fight director: Andrew Ashenden), while Dick and Alice, in true fairy tale style, declare their love for one another with a beautiful duet.
To counterbalance the sappiness, Michael Lambourne makes the perfect villain of the story, drawing loud boos from the audience every time he appears. Tim Stedman and newcomer Harry Wyatt provide much of the panto humour and bounce off each other like they’ve been working together for years. Tim is deservedly well-known and loved by the audience and Harry, who is clearly experienced in panto, has enormous stage presence, a powerful voice and fabulous make-up and costumes (Morgan Brind).
My 5-year old’s favourite character was Fairy Bow-bells because she had the most sparkly dress! She interacted beautifully with the audience in her narrator role, pulling the different elements of the story together.
All in all, Dick Whittington is a very well put together and produced panto which I would highly recommend seeing. Watch out for the blacklight underwater scene with the surprise tap-dancing jellyfish and the 12 Days of Christmas number, which I particularly enjoyed because it looked like the cast were finding it as funny as we were!
Dick Whittington is at Harrogate Theatre until January 14th 2024 – more information and tickets can be found here.
Always Time For Theatre 
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