Aladdin (the panto)
Moira de Swardt
inner child should have booked, or at least be booking, for this
annual extravaganza of camp, colourful characters.
The story of Aladdin comes from the Thousand-and-one-Nights tales,
and after Cinderella, is the most often performed of all the pantos.
Because Honeyman now gets her sets and costumes from Qdos, the
pantomime giants, in England we get to use the traditional Chinese
setting which English pantomime usually uses, hence the Chinese
laundry setting whereas in "A Lad 'n a Lamp" we had a far more South
African flavour to the sets. The important element in any panto
story is that of good battling against evil, and emerging
triumphant, is perfectly depicted with Aladdin fighting off the
wicked, Abanazar, getting the girl, and marrying her in a fairytale
ending. There was the usual mix of humour, with an emphasis on
visual humour this year, and rather less topical and indigenous
humour than usual.
The scenery is magnificent, and good use is still made of all the
stage lifts. It's hard to tell, in most places, that it was not
specifically designed for the Nelson Mandela Theatre. The costumes
are beautiful, even opulent. The penultimate scene used the rich
red of Chinese good fortune and the wedding scene used royal blue
and silver. The Opel whatever sports car and the Yamaha bikes
(seems magic carpets just aren't as reliable, or sexy, as they used
to be) will probably please, or not please, according to taste,
those who are into that sort of thing. The choreography is by
Timothy Le Roux and is full of energy but never overpowering. The
lights 'searching' through the audience worried at least one person
enough for him to have spent a considerable portion of the second
half of the show shielding his eyes. Most audience members don't
enjoy being blinded, even temporarily.
The music is fabulous. This year the band under the musical
direction of Heidi Edeling have been placed stage right, rather than
in the orchestra pit and the full thrust stage is used, bringing
much of the action right under the noses of the audience. Never
before has the singing been of the quality it reached this year.
Desmond Dube plays the Dame, no, not Widow Twanky, but Winnie
Wotalotigot, the straightest dame I've ever seen. It was a pleasant
change from the camp dames we've become accustomed to, adding a
different brand of humour.
Andre Schwartz, who has been voted South Africa's sexiest man,
played the evil, Abanazar, and seems to be having a lot of fun with
the role, discouraging applause and encouraging proper booing and
hissing. We got to do the "O, yes, I can"/"O, no, you can't" thing
several times.
The boy band, Eden, get to be stars as four of the five sons born to
Dame Winnie Wotalotigot. Jay du Plessis is Aladdin, (the principal
boy in Honeyman pantos is always a boy) and the other three members
of the boy band, Aladdin's brothers, are Sean Else, Paulo Azevedo
and Johan Vorster. They are very, very easy on the eye, and get to
show us their abs in at least one sequence. My older niece advises
me that her younger sister was very smitten with Jay. I remember
the older niece being similarly smitten with some principal boy in
the past. If there were no tempting young eye candy the panto would
lose two of its biggest audiences, gay men and teenage girls.
Jeffrey Sebogodi, who will always be "Thabo, the tapping tortoise"
in my mind, stars as Wishee Washee, also Aladdin's brother!
Aubrey Poo is the genie of the Lamp, KB (Keabetswe Motsilanyane) is
the Kool Kitten and Michelle Botha is the Empress Wun Tun Tum.
The chorus and everyone else in the show comprise Nacia Erasmus,
Trudy-Anne Fredericks, Nontle Mondi, Tsholofelo Monedi, Tamara Osso,
Faye Wood, Adam du Plessis, Rudi Janse Van Vuuren, Jerome Julies,
Karabo Maitufi, Craig Norris, Nicol Sheraton, Xander Steyn.
This is a family friendly show. It is suitable for everyone, young
and old, male and female, sophisticated or unsophisticated, and it
doesn't matter who it is that one takes along there'll be another
group or two with similar demographics. No one needs to borrow a
child in order to be able to have an excuse to see the pantomime. No
one will stare if you turn up with a friend or, indeed, a hundred or
so of your most intimate associates, including your baby nephew and
your aged Aunt Agatha. Judging by my experience, a very good time
will be had by all.
The panto is on stage at the Nelson Mandela Theatre, The
Johannesburg Civic Theatre until 31 December 2006.
Next year's panto will be "Peter Pan". I am advised that booking is
already open.
Peter H.M.Brooks
> Hurrah! The pantomime season is upon us again, and anyone with an
> inner child should have booked, or at least be booking, for this
> annual extravaganza of camp, colourful characters.
>
> The story of Aladdin comes from the Thousand-and-one-Nights tales,
> and after Cinderella, is the most often performed of all the pantos.
>
Arabian - you'd have thought that his nominative closeness to Al Gebra
and their common mathematical insinuations would give the game away. Of
course, since a Thousand Nights and a Night (or the Arabian Nights, to
mention the other names) was written in Arabia, it is reasonable that
the tales would be of exotic places, which were perforce elsewhere.
>
> The boy band, Eden, get to be stars as four of the five sons born to
> Dame Winnie Wotalotigot. Jay du Plessis is Aladdin, (the principal
> boy in Honeyman pantos is always a boy) and the other three members
> of the boy band, Aladdin's brothers, are Sean Else, Paulo Azevedo
> and Johan Vorster. They are very, very easy on the eye, and get to
> show us their abs in at least one sequence. My older niece advises
> me that her younger sister was very smitten with Jay. I remember
> the older niece being similarly smitten with some principal boy in
> the past. If there were no tempting young eye candy the panto would
> lose two of its biggest audiences, gay men and teenage girls.
>
whose main pleasure (apart from that given to the children they take
along) is a nice traditional Principal Boy - if the Principal Boy is
male it makes the circus seem a better bet! We have discussed this
before, though, I think.
As far as I can see, we haven't got a pantomime in Cape Town this year.
The closest is Cinderella on ice, which isn't quite the same thing, at
the casino.
Moira de Swardt
"Peter H.M.Brooks" <pe...@new.co.za> wrote in message
> Moira de Swardt wrote:
Yes, we discussed it in 2004, after my "Cinderella" review. I never
got round to reviewing last year's panto. Thinking about it,
though, all one needs to do from year to year is run the changes on
some kind of master sheet. The pantomime is equally delightful
every year. :-)
We don't have a circus this year. The nearest I've been to a circus
in years is the "Spectacular Ice Circus" at the Hippodrome, Gold
Reef City, earlier this year.
> As far as I can see, we haven't got a pantomime in Cape Town this
year.
> The closest is Cinderella on ice, which isn't quite the same
thing, at
> the casino.
Last year we had Sleeping Beauty on Ice at the State Theatre. I
thoroughly enjoyed that.
--
Moira de Swardt posting from Johannesburg, South Africa
Remove the dot in my address to find me at home.