The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Frosted full of top hits and colour
It’s panto time again and the old cliche that “it is quality over quantity that counts” gets a severe drubbing this week as Thomson-leng’s 50-plus company burst on to Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre stage with enthusiasm and talent to belie their amateur status.
Frosted is loosely based on The Snow Queen, but, of course, has more than a nodding acquaintance with a similarly-named Disney blockbuster.
And the company certainly “let it go” as they burst into Colour My World after Kirsty Beaumont’s Snow Fairy sets the scene.
What follows is a cornucopia of colour, comedy and a top 20 of hits led by musical director Billy Muir.
With such a large crowd to manoeuvre, it is to the credit of director Donna Bell and choreographer Jenni Main to keep them all in step – and the wee juniors are an absolute delight.
Emily Easton leads the way as Ella, who fails to control her mysterious powers and plunges her kingdom into permanent winter. There is nothing mysterious about Emily’s powers as she leads by example in many a hit number.
Rachel Weir is Ella’s sister Hannah, who joins forces with love-struck Kristian (Neil Hartley) and Nanny Florrie (Tom Richmond) to stop the evil duo Prince Anders (Sean O’rourke) and Sinestra (Jude Vandecasteele) from taking over the kingdom.
Tom Richmond, once again, is on top form as the irrepressible dame, complete with some punishingly bad jokes.
But, this year, he must share the honours in the comedy stakes with Lucy Reilly, whose nastiness as Duchess Wesley is in contrast to the comic display as Frosty the snowman.
Sean O’rourke was reported last week to be looking forward to being booed every night on his panto debut as the not-very-nice Prince Anders.
He certainly gets his wish as he impressively involves the whole audience.
Frosted is sheer joy from start to finish with superb costumes and staging.
The colourful finale to the accompaniment of the Gary Barlow/peter Kay hit Once Upon a Christmas has the “wow” factor and, to quote the lyrics, no one would be averse to seeing this “over and over again”.