Napoleon, Un Petit Pantomime
By John Savournin and David Eaton
Directed by John Savournin and Benji Sperring
Jermyn Street Theatre/Charles Court Opera
Star rating: 5
You can always rely on Charles Court Opera for musical excellence and lots of wit. And as last year, their pantomime sits happily and hilariously in Jermyn Street’s bijoux space with an accomplished cast of five and enough energy to launch a rocket.
All the traditional pantomime elements are in (Oh yes they are!) including a repetitive rhyme for the audience to respond to, rhyming couplets and a scene in which two audience members compete. We also get a quest, disguises and Brexit jokes. It’s a long way from your run-of-the-mill Cinderellas and Aladdins, however, and feels sparkily fresh. The puns are delicious, for example and include plays on Bonaparte (blown-apart, bone-apart and the rest) and a clever series of George Orwell jokes. And who could resist a pair of cows called Souffle and Sue Gray?
It’s the music, however, which makes this show special. Accompanied by David Eaton, MD and composer, on piano stage right and some fine guitar playing from stage left, the show works ingeniously through a whole range of musical styles. Amy J Payne as feisty, feminist Georgina (the future George IV – sort of) sings Cherubino’s aria from The Marriage of Figaro with very funny new words. There’s a beautifully harmonised and sung anthem-like quintet based on the EastEnders signature tune, a reference to Elton John, a reworking of Petula Clark’s Down Town as Beef Pie and lots of pop parodies. And the point is that these are real singers so it all sounds terrific.
Matthew Kellett as Napoleon the villain (lots of traditional cackling laughter), has great fun hamming it up and then singing in his glorious baritone voice. He’s assisted in his anti-British villany by the ghost of Marie Antoinette (Rosie Stobel – good) who clambers out of her picture frame to do her bit. Elliot Broadfoot is a larger-than-life nightshirted George III richocheting between clumsy madness and incongruously nimble dancing. And Jennie Jacobs is mannishly ridiculous and highly entertaining as the stage-commanding Duke of Wellington
All in all this is an outstanding show which ably demonstrates that excellence is nothing to do with size or scale. It was even educational. Who knew that Napoleon was responsible (offered a prize for development of non-dairy spread, apparently) for the invention of margarine? I certainly didn’t and had to Google it to check the way home.
