Was Jerry miming in panto? Oh yes she was!
AS the Wicked Queen in Snow White, Jerry Hall was always meant to be the villain.
But she found herself on the wrong side of the audience for an entirely different reason – when she mimed all her musical numbers in her pantomime debut.
Angry patrons branded it ‘a complete joke’ and ‘beyond ridiculous’ that the model lip-synced to a track of her own voice. She couldn’t even do it well, they claimed, and often had her mouth closed when she should have been singing.
Others roguishly suggested she could have asked ex-husband Sir Mick Jagger for singing tips, rather than disappoint fans who had paid up to £56 per ticket.
Some said her fee for the evening’s show should be withheld.
Whatever her issues with sound, the 58-year-old at least looked the part in a glitzy thigh-split gold gown for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Richmond Theatre in south-west London. But despite having performed at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Miss Hall did not seem to trust her voice.
The production team confirmed a backing track was used, saying it was too hard for Miss Hall to dance and remember her lines without it, and that it was ‘common practice’.
Miss Hall, a patron of Richmond Theatre, did have a few friendly faces at Thursday’s show, in the form of Jagger and three of their four children – James, 29, Georgia, 22, and Gabriel, 16. Their eldest daughter Lizzie, 30, was not there.
But others were less impressed by the star, whose acting credits include a part in 1989’s Batman. Jane Clarkson, from nearby Twickenham, said: ‘I am appalled, I have spent a lot of money to bring six children to see an all-singing, alldancing show and for Jerry Hall to
‘Couldn’t Mick give her lessons?’
mime, and to mime badly, was a complete joke. Couldn’t her former husband have given her some lessons? I’m really not happy.’
Wendy Herbert, of Richmond, added: ‘My daughter kept asking what was going on.’
Maria Valeras, also from Richa- mond, said: ‘It’s not a modelling shoot and for her not even to be able to mime to a track of her own voice is beyond ridiculous.’
Miss Hall is no stranger to the stage, having previously starred in a production of The Graduate – to mixed reviews. One said she was ‘as wooden as a toothpick’.
The criticism has never seemed to faze her, however. This year she said she was ‘thrilled’ to be in Snow White, adding that she and Jagger used to take their children to the Richmond panto every year.
The production team said using backing tracks ensures that ‘every theatre-goer has the very best experience’ for 12 shows a week.