Review Roundup: 101 DALMATIANS, Starring Kate Fleetwood

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's production of 101 Dalmatians was supposed to run in 2020, but was delayed by the pandemic until now. What did the critics think of the production?

---

Aliya Al-Hassan: BroadwayWorld: Toby Olié's brilliant puppetry is in evidence again. Dogs Perdi and Pongo are brought to life through concertina necks, sweetly designed faces and hind legs played by actors with nicely realistic sprung tails. The movement of the two dogs is hyper-realistic and beautifully realised by the puppeteers, with Yana Penrose and Danny Collins completing the character of the dogs as their voices. The plethora of puppies is less successful, with floating heads looking more like finger puppets than real dogs.

Clive Davis: The Times: The truncated cross-country chase involves ingenious use of skipping ropes and lamps. Cruella's travails are portrayed with Looney Tunes relish. True, her big first act number, Für Fur, tries and fails to give her a more sympathetic backstory. Fleetwood, all cheekbones and flashing eyes, still hits it out of the park. Kids will warm to the antics of her two gormless nephews, Jasper and Casper (George Bukhari and Jonny Weldon). Katrina Lindsay's costumes add flair, while Colin Richmond's set turns the giant letters spelling out the show's title into a shabby-genteel domestic interior. Liam Steel's choreography supplies lots of doggy energy too.

Marianka Swain: London Theatre: The production overall still feels like a work-in-progress. Hodge supplies a pleasant but immediately forgettable jazz-pop-folk pastiche score. My companion felt the show could have ditched the songs altogether; I wouldn't go quite that far, but I would certainly excise several. There are strange tonal lurches, like going right from a big, vampy Cruella number to a sad ballad from a mum worried her pup is going to die.

Arifa Akbar: The Guardian: Thank God for Kate Fleetwood's Cruella de Vil (fur, stilettos, big wigs), who plays her part for kicks at first but brings a baroque darkness later on and channels the sinister energy of her creepy Disney cartoon forebear. It is hammy, and sometimes panto-ish, but it works. She also has an excellently jazzy voice in songs such as Für Fur but is the only character whose singing is showcased in the score. Harris's updated story casts her as a social media influencer and this is promising but feels latched on, sometimes straining for its relevance and humour.

Nick Curtis: London Evening Standard: Rather than Disney, the production echoes the fizz and physical elasticity of a Road Runner cartoon, courtesy of director Timothy Sheader and set and costume designers Colin Richmond and Katrina Lindsay. A madcap car chase, and the transformation of Cruella - eyeballs popping, limbs telescoping, tongue unrolling like a carpet - are laugh-out-loud high points.

Mickey-Jo Boucher: WhatsOnStage: Cruella de Vil is reconceived as a vape-wielding social media influencer, possibly an easy target especially when divisive social commentator seems closer to what the creatives were aiming for. Though Kate Fleetwood was born for femme fatale villainy with her chiselled cheekbones and piercing belt, she is inhibited at every turn by the reinvention of her character; she is at least dressed stylishly for much of the show by Katrina Lindsay. Her efforts, alongside Colin Richmond's ingenious set, are the production's most redeeming features.

101 Dalmatians is at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre until 28 August

Photo Credit: Mark Senior

To post a comment, you must register and login.