Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs At Bournemouth Pavilion Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Steven O
It’s panto season…oh no, it’s not…oh yes it is! What better way to kick off December and our Christmas festivities, than with a trip to the pantomime. So we were delighted to be offered 4 tickets to review The Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth’s 2023 offering – Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. We were even more excited, as it was our son and daughter’s first time watching a pantomime, so excitement levels were through the roof, before we’d even arrived at the theatre.
We were seated in row K, in the Stalls to the left hand side of the stage, which although was over to one side of the auditorium, still gave us a great view of the stage and we could see everything that what was going on. The seats were comfortable and had plenty of legroom too.
Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs is a UK Productions pantomime presented by Martin Dodd. It follows the story of poor Snow White, played brilliantly by Jenny Huxley-Golden, who is treated so badly by her wicked stepmother, Queen Grimelda (the wonderful Su Pollard), after she discovers that her famous ‘Mirror mirror on the wall’ no longer sees her as the fairest of them all, instead favouring Snow White. She takes Snow White to the woods and leaves her for dead to be eaten by the wild animals.
Snow White then stumbles across seven fabulous dwarfs, who work at the mine owned by Prince Kendrick. When Wicked Grimelda discovers that Snow White is still alive and living with the Dwarfs, she hatches a plan to give her a poisonous apple to kill her once and for all. What she doesn’t bank on is that the spell on the poisonous apple, can be broken by True Love’s kiss.
We loved the Dwarfs, the brilliantly named Prof, Cheeky, Stroppy, Dozy, Snotty, Whiffy and Disney and also thought Jamie Steen as the hilarious Dame Dilly Donut, was fantastic. A true pantomime Dame in every sense of the word; with an amazing costume change with every reappearance on the stage.
The standout performance for us was Noel Brodie as Muddles, who so effortlessly provided the link between the cast and the audience. He had amazing comic timing and stage presence. This is currently his ninth season at Bournemouth Pavilion, with another scheduled return next year.
It goes without saying that the legendary Su Pollard was amazing as the Wicked Queen Grimelda, as was to be expected, bringing lots of ‘wicked’ humour to her role. It was particularly good to see a nod to her role as ‘Peggy’ in Hi-De-Hi! making a welcome appearance in the show too.
There was plenty of opportunity for audience participation, which everybody loved and got involved with, particularly the children. You could see the joy on our son’s face when he realised he was allowed to shout out and as time went on, the cheers and the boos got louder!
For us, the magic of pantomime is the ability to appeal to audiences of all ages, with so often the jokes being a bit adult-themed, but so cleverly written that they completely go over the children’s heads!
There really was something for everyone with a mix of classic ‘older’ songs such as ‘I put a Spell on You’ and some modern ones too, including Dance the Night by Dua Lipa, fantastically re-worded to support the plot line. What we particularly enjoyed is the brand-new rendition of ‘The twelve days of Christmas’; absolutely hilarious and brilliantly performed.
Our son’s favourite part of the show was the use of the ‘magic mirror’. He just couldn’t work out how they’d made it. To be fair, neither could we and we thought it was a really great feature of the performance.
The panto has a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, including a 20 minute interval (ice cream and loo break!), which is a long time for younger children to focus for. Our 5 year old had no issues with it, but our daughter is only 2 and started to lose concentration towards the end. I’d say the performance is suitable for anyone age 3 and upwards.
There are designated times for school performances available, a relaxed performance on Tuesday 12th December, where the house lights are up and no loud noises, bangs or flashing lights and a captioned performance on Saturday 9th December, making the show accessible for as many people as possible.
We had a wonderful time at the pantomime and are already looking forward to going again next year! We would definitely recommend it to anyone who’s looking to get into the Christmas spirit and enjoy a family afternoon out. I think the evening performances might finish too late for really little people, so it’s great that matinee performances are on offer.
Ticket prices range between £17 and £36 depending on where you sit within the theatre. As there is such a range, the lower priced tickets make the performance more accessible for family’s who are on a tighter budget. Given the length of the performance, we think it’s reasonable value for money.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP – tickets range from £17 to £36
Buy your tickets here: Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Pantomime | Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre
Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs is showing at The Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth, between Saturday 2nd and Sunday 31st December 2023, with performances daily (except Christmas day!).
Full address of Theatre: Bournemouth Pavilion, Westover Road, Bournemouth, BH1 2BU
https://www.bournemouthpavilion.co.uk/events/snow-white-panto-2023