Monday 24 December 2007

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The New Wimbledon Theatre, London

A rambling and lackluster production of Snow White which fails to bring out the best in its eclectic cast. Soap star Ross Kemp, as the evil henchman, has been given few good lines and, in any case, he lacks comic timing. By contrast, comedian Bobby Davro delivers some very funny asides as Muddles, but his acting is lame and it can feel like he is sleepwalking through the pantomine. The lowest and least imaginitive point comes when he has the audience standing up and sitting down while singing 'My Bonny Comes Over the Ocean.' The seven dwarves do their best with a lame script, while Snow White and her prince sing a few bland songs. It is left to the flirtatious and magnetic Rae Baker to salvage the show as the wicked queen. She is in all the half-decent scenes with the exception of one, which has Ross Kemp, Bobby Davro and the prince squeezed onto a bench doing a camp dance routine, while singing along to Ghostbusters and trying to ignore the audience shouting: 'He's behind you'. Perhaps the best thing about this production is the venue - a traditional, atmospheric and ornate theatre with a vertiginous upper circle. Ticket prices range from £13 to £25. 5/10