Sleeping Beauty At Derby Arena Review

Reviewed by Lindsay Burton

Hello Derby, well hello Derby, it’s so nice to have you back where you belong ???
And wasn’t that just the case last night at the Derby arena with Scott Ramsay and Little Wolf’s production of Sleeping Beauty. With the return of our much loved theatre and pantomime, the festive season has well and truly kicked off with this fun filled Christmas show! Due to unforeseen traffic problems (and a very stern parking attendant – do NOT forget your £3 cash for parking !!!!!!!!), the show started 10 minutes later than the scheduled 19:00 but once it started, all worries were out the window and we were spellbound by the cast on stage! With the glamorous Rita Simmons as the Carrabosse, I knew we were in for a special treat! She donned the outfit and transformed into a villain with finesse and style! And what a voice!! Lovely to see such a different side to a great actress! My all time favourite, Morgan Brind, was back on stage in ridiculously outrageous frocks and an even louder personality as Nurse Nancy. I have watched this actor over the last few years and a panto just isn’t a panto without him in it!!! With classic tracks adapted to the story ( such as “Hello Dolly” and “Club Tropicana”) and some really bad but funny jokes, the audience eventually got involved and joined in at all the rights places. Definitely a slow start from the audience and not the action on stage.

Party plans are well on their way at Derbion Castle, Nurse Nancy is preparing for the christening of the baby Princess Rose. When the wickedly glamorous Carabosse, a thorn in the royal family’s side, realises she’s not been invited, she sets her evil plans of revenge in motion and curses the baby Rose. It’s up to the dashing Prince Vince to fight his way through the thorny thicket, wake his true love and help her save the kingdom.

Some lovely voices on stage too, thoroughly enjoyed the vocals of Abigail Finley (Fairy Lights) and great performances by Richard Brindley (Mervin the Magician), Roddy Peters (Norman Ton), Sophia Lewis ( Princess Rose) and Matthew Mori (Prince Vince). I was super impressed with the amount of children in the cast – they were fantastic! So very talented with their dancing and singing, it really made this family show superb!

Poor C****…er, sorry C**** (editor’s note – names removed) (the teacher in the audience that Nurse Nancy took a great fancy to) did a smashing job as well as the children participants who joined in on stage. The stage set design was brilliantly colourful and glittery and allowed for a particularly messy scene with Nurse Nancy and Mervin the Magician. Together with fantastic puppetry during various scenes and many laugh out loud moments, it most certainly had everything we expected to see on stage during a panto and so much more.

We throughly enjoyed the show, the venue was great and plenty of parking available too.

Rating And Booking Info: I give this show 5/5 for family festive fun and tickets can be purchased from https://www.derbylive.co.uk/whats-on/buy-tickets?event=276625. Make sure you get your tickets and get to Derby Arena as soon as you can. This show runs into the new year and tickets would make a fantastic gift for any panto loving family for Christmas too.

Tickets cost from £13.50.

The panto is on until 8th January 2022.

“Panto will never go away again!”