Review: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Bristol Hippodrome

Ready for Christmas? OH YES, YOU ARE, with Bristol Hippodrome’s pantomime of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

The theatre’s latest festive offering is a slick, buoyant production that is heavy on the laughs despite a weaker storyline. Featuring hit songs, glitzy costumes and plenty of pop culture references, it is a show that will entertain adults and children alike.

Back with a bang, a bum wiggle and an ill-timed fart is Hippodrome veteran Andy Ford, who has appeared in nine of the venue’s pantomimes. Here he plays Muddles, bumbling servant to the evil Queen Dragonella (Lesley Joseph) and unwitting aide in her plan to dispatch of beautiful Snow White and become once more ‘fairest in the land’.

Ford is a Hippodrome institution, and for good reason. He puts in an effortless performance, building an instant rapport with the audience, and taking in the whole house with his large, likeable persona.

Majestic and commanding, Lesley Joseph is fantastic as the beauty-obsessed queen: a real Cruella Deville of a villain with a thriving side hustle in cackles. Yet she is also adept at playing the comedy of her part, and the audience loves (and loves to boo) her.

While blessed with an impressive and well-trained singing voice, Charlotte Haines as Snow White is the weakest of the show’s main characters. Her performance as perfect, do-gooder Snow grates, with her affected high voice and gosh-aren’t-I-lovely characterisation coming across as sickly.

It’s not entirely the actor’s fault. The script offers next to no opportunity for her to diversify the character, which is written in stark two-dimension. “I’ll be amazed if they give her a single joke by the end of the show,” commented my theatre companion at half time.

Charlotte Haines as Snow White and Lesley Joseph as Queen Dragonella – photo: Stephen Lewis

This is the fundamental flaw with the production. Snow White, and indeed Prince Harry (no Prince Charmings here), are more like plot devices to keep the show ticking along with the narrative than fully fleshed-out characters. It often feels like the production is simply a vehicle for its jokes, be it the long sessions of audience interaction with Muddles that interrupt important scenes, or the contrived diversions into pop culture parodies.

It is telling that the posters promoting the show around Bristol show side characters Muddle and the Man in the Mirror, but miss off its titular character. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? More like Andy Ford: The Panto.

Still, the show’s comic set pieces make it almost worth them side-lining the narrative. A meta-awareness of the fact that it is all just make-believe produces rich territory for comedy. Muddles always refers to the queen by the actor’s real name (“Hiya Lesley,” he calls. “Don’t call me Lesley!” she shouts back), and comments on spotting the other actors in the wings. This meta element reaches fruition in a fantastic rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, which really is belly-achingly funny.

One does wish, however, that the Man in the Mirror scenes featuring Rob Rinder (aka television’s Judge Rinder) didn’t feature quite so many legal puns. Rinder puts in a good performance, but the constant allusions to courts, sentences and defendants soon becomes tiring.

The cast of Snow White – photo: Stephen Lewis

There is no doubt that the production is a visual treat. Dancers perform slick routines in an impressive array of costumes, including some excellent lizard-like headdresses for the evil queen’s minions. They even don a new set of outfits just for the curtain call.

The many sets transition from a deep navy sky strewn with stars to a village scene featuring warmly lit windows and lacing tree branches. An elegantly painted castle takes up the backdrop, to be replaced by a truly impressive magic mirror.

Flawed it may be, but Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is still a highly entertaining watch, replete with all the elements that make a pantomime great. Bristol Hippodrome should be proud of its latest festive offering.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (recommended for 7+) is at Bristol Hippodrome until January 2 2022. There will be a captioned show on December 8, a relaxed show on December 16 and the evening performance on December 30 will be sign language interpreted and audio described. Tickets are available at www.atgtickets.com.

Main photo: Stephen Lewis

Read more: Review: Hairspray, Bristol Hippodrome

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