PANTO SEASON: Behind the Scenes - ROBIN HOOD Opening Night

It always strikes me as cruel that we review the opening nights of theatre performances. We don't treat any other form of entertainment that way. A footballer isn't written off because their debut is a bad one, an artist's first work will go almost un-noticed and an author - well, Jeffrey Archer still gets published.

Cruel though it may be, this is the night that everyone at Cubbington Players has been working towards and this is the night that I have been looking forward to since that first read through back in September.

Opening night always has a special air of tension in pantomime, whether it is the glossiest professional production or the smallest amateur one. No matter how many times you do something in rehearsal, there is nothing like a paying audience to ensure that something will do wrong.

Mercifully, the mishaps are few and probably pass the vast majority of the audience by. A few lines are muddled and a custard pie scene that was only inserted into the script at the last minute goes predictably awry, but this is a production which has really come together in the last week or so of rehearsal.

In some respects, in fact, it is revelatory. The costumes, for example, are superb, with the dame's outfit being dazzling in every respect of the word. The three children - who I have not been able to see rehearse at all - turn in surprisingly restrained and mature performances (although it must be said that they rather spoilt this by over-acting in the parts of the second performance that I was able to see), playing the parts of both the children of Nottingham and some of the Merry Men. And - custard pies aside - all of the stunts and tricks that were causing so many problems in rehearsals seem to come off without a hitch.

This is a show without any real stars, but it must be said that the standout performance came from Pete Staton as the wonderfully malevolent Sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Knotgood. Rarely has a villan been so roundly boo-ed, or loved it so much. Alongside him, Ruth Hawkins is a thoroughly wicked Evilyn T'Entt whilst Barry West and John Staton are magnificent as the incompetent henchmen, Sir Lunchalot and Sir Cumference.

If there is one criticism, I was disappointed with many of the songs. At the one extreme, the duet by Sir Lunchalot and Sir Cumference brings the house down, whilst the Sheriff and Evilyn turn in a rendition of ‘I'd Do Anything' which has the audience booing and laughing in equal measure. At the other end of the spectrum, though, there is an opening number which is not only dreary, but which appears to be pitched too high for the performers to sing and an audience participation song which goes on for far too long the first time it is performed and which several of the cast don't seem to know for themselves.

All in all, though, this was a thoroughly entertaining performance which left the audience entertained and happy. No company can ask for more.

 

 

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