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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lyceum, Sheffield - REVIEW
YOU know what they say about an apple a day...
Well, never mind about keeping the doctor away, this one banishes the winter blues.
But the infamous poison apple is not the only fruity thing on offer as Snow White and those seven dwarfs take up residence at The Lyceum for the region's biggest, most lavish panto.
Take some of the costumes 80s singing star turned actress Toyah Willcox wears as Wicked Queen Ivannah - and a couple of the gags designed to go over young heads.
Writer/director Paul Hendy knows what people want and completes a hat-trick of pantomime successes having previously delivered Crucible hits with Aladdin and Cinderella.
Helga Wood's sets and costumes are done too well for this to be anything like tacky. And while there's the odd dollop of cheese we're not talking common old cheddar, but a ripe and frisky Wensleydale.
Those missing local comic Bobby Knutt get him in a virtual role as the all-knowing man in the mirror, but the brightest star in this cosmos of fun is Damian Williams, once again Dame for a laugh.
With his increasingly outrageous array of Nurse Nellie costumes and Tommy Cooper-tinted delivery, this is a big man born to lark about in women's clothes.
And his casting alongside Sheffield joker and radio presenter Toby Foster, as Muddles, is a partnership that is going places - their ludicrous snack bar-driven sketch is pun heaven.
With Kate Quinnell a suitably fresh-faced Snow White, Andrew Alexander her Prince "so handsome his face hurts" and 36 local youngsters swelling an all-singing, all-dancing cast, this is pantomime that does more than keep a great British traditional alive.
Throw in the local footy references, Toyah's terrible attempt at a Sheffield accent, brilliant woodland animals and a forest Thriller routine Jacko would have loved and this is premiere league modern panto - a sharp, colourful, thigh-slapping romp.
In the words of Nellie to the kids: "If mum doesn't join in, it's because she doesn't love you."
Snow White is in Sheffield until January 10.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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