Dick Whittington at the Waterside Theatre Aylesbury Review
Dick Whittington
Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury
11 December 2015 to 3 January 2016
Reviewed by Lindsey Wilkins
I was delighted to have been chosen to review Dick Whittington at the Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury. I took along my husband and 2 children. We love panto season, so we were all very excited to see the show. We hadn’t been to this theatre before and were pleasantly surprised as to what a lovely theatre it was. The theatre is situated in the centre of Aylesbury and is surrounded by several bars and restaurants. As we arrived we spotted the huge car park directly opposite the theatre and got parked up without any fuss.
As we made our way into the bright spacious foyer we couldn’t help but notice how busy it was.
We made our way over to a helpful member of staff who was happy to direct us to where we needed to collect our tickets. Once collected we were then directed to the door to where we would find our seats. Our view was great, the seats were very comfortable with plenty of leg room. We could see the theatre was filling up very quick with lots of people of different age ranges from young children to the elderly. There was a nice warm cosy atmosphere as we sat listening to Christmas songs being played whilst waiting for the curtain to go up. It all felt very festive.
The pantomime started on time and there appeared on stage was the 2013 Xfactor winner Sam Bailey. Sam did a brilliant job playing the part of Fairy Bowbells. Her voice was fantastic.
She was then joined on stage by lots of other great characters including the very funny Idle Jack played by one of Aylesbury’s favourites Andy Collins.
This whole rags to riches story of Dick Whittington and his cat was performed brilliantly.
Without give too much away, the stage sets looked stunning and the singing was first class. With songs being sang from decades back, to recent chart music. The wonderful costumes were bright and colourful and the full on dance routines were flawless.
The interval wasn’t too long, there was enough time to pop to the bar for a drink. Before returning to our seats we popped to the toilets. I was very impressed on how clean and tidy they were as it was so busy. On our way back to our seats I also noticed some merchandise being sold, including programmes, flashing pirate swords and LED finger glow gloves. It all seemed reasonably priced.
We really enjoyed the show. There were so many funny moments throughout, with lots of boos and cheers from the audience. My favourite character had to be Alderman Fitzwarren played brilliantly by Chris Nelson, who also directed the show. He had the audience constantly laughing with his funny one liners, and his frequent change of superb costumes.
The children in the audience were having a fantastic time, and so too were the adults! The glittery finale was fabulous. Nearly everyone was up on their feet singing and dancing.
The show was full of so much energy and also very fun. We will definitely be back next year!
Rating: 5/5 
Tickets cost from £11.90 to £31.40 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).
Dick Whittington is at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury until 3 January 2016. For more information or to book tickets click here or call the box office on 0844 871 7607.
Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Exchange Street, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP20 1UG
