Dick Whittington At Nottingham Playhouse Review

Reviewed by Lindsay Burton

At this very moment, Dick Whittington and his trusty cat are on their quest for fame and fortune at the Nottingham Playhouse! So, get your tickets and join the hilarious production for a fantastic start to your Christmas celebrations!

This magical rags to riches tale whisks us off to London where the streets are apparently “paved with gold”, or at least they are according to Dick’s mum! The legendary Playhouse panto was a first for me and my three children and we loved every second. This family friendly show is full of sparkle, excitement and fun.  The hero of our show Dick Whittington (Lisa Ambalavanar) go on an incredible journey which takes him and his trusty sidekick, Tom the cat(Ewan Ling), onto the High Seas and into battle with the evil King Rat (Christopher Chandler) and his army of rats. We also see him fall head over heels in love with his boss’s daughter Alice (Rosanna Bates), much to the annoyance of Alice’s friend Silly Billy (Danny Hendrix). Nothing is missed as the magical Bow Bells (Natalie Winsor) ensures that luck is most defenitly on Dick’s side – enough to potentially become Mayor of London!

Packed with dazzling dance, a brilliantly talented live band and swashbuckling adventure, the show reunites us with Nottingham’s favourite panto dame John Elkington, who’ll be serving up some comedy chaos as Sarah the Cook. My children all adored Tom the Cat and his swift little dance breaks but my personal favourite was Sarah the Cook, played by Nottingham’s favourite panto dame, John Ellington. First time for us to see this Dame in action and boy oh boy, she had us in stitches all night long! My eldest son is 13 and I could see some of the more adult humour and hidden innuendos started making sense to him – he had some very “wide eye” moments with many howls of laughter.

Another favourite for us all was the “under the sea” scene. We’ll thought out and so very effective, we loved the nod to Pirates of the Caribbean! And the giant octopus was just brilliant!!!

Huge shout out to set and costume designer, Mark Walters. The cast looked amazing and the together with the fantastic set added to the sheer magical experience of panto! Not to mention the fanatic vocals by Rosanna Bates, Lisa Ambalavanar and Natalie Winsor. The super talented cast together with the stunning youth chorus made this show as amazing as it is! Team Holborn truly added to the magic of Christmas pantomime and each and every team member should be incredibly proud of this production!

Full of fun, singing, dancing and lots of action – you are guaranteed for a night filled with lots of giggles and festive cheer!

Rating: We rate this show us 4/5 and I think the audience will agree that this makes for a night remember!

It’s on from Friday 25th November 2022 until Saturday 14th January 2023

Make sure you don’t miss this family friendly show, tickets can be purchased from here.

This would make a fantastic addition to anyone’s Christmas plans – it will most definitely get you into the Christmas spirit!