Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs At The Mayflower

It's Panto Season! Who doesn't love a good panto this time of year? This year the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton are showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I may be a little bias, but I'm yet to see a show at the Mayflower that hasn't been a good one. I went along with a few fellow SotonBloggers to see this years panto and boy, oh boy were we in for a treat.

For 89 years the Mayflower theatre has brought Christmas cheer and entertainment to Southampton, this years production of Snow White has Craig Revel Horwood as Queen Lucretia, The Chuckle Brothers as The Henchmen, Flawless as The Queen's Men, Oliver Savile as Prince Harry of Hampshire and Charlotte Haines as Snow While and last but not least The Magnificent Seven.

I have to admit that from the moment I realised the Chuckle Brothers were in it I couldn't wait, I was all prepared to shout " To me, to you" as loud as I could, along with the usual panto classics. The whole cast seemed like a pretty fabby line up.

The show started with an almighty bang and zero warning. Chatting and excitement quickly turned into screams then laughter, getting the show off on the right foot!

There were so many touches added to this show about Southampton, from Snow White and some of the ensemble dancing with the local teams Saints scarfs to a good old dig at my local Conservative MP ( I enjoyed that).

Now lets talk characters, I was dubious about Craig Revel Horwood, personally I've only ever seen his stone cold face and catty attitude on the TV.. could I love him as an Evil Queen Drag Act? YAS!
He fully stole the show for me, the attitude, costume and he can hold a bloody good note. I think they got the casting for Queen Lucretia just right.
The Chuckle Brothers, I didn't even second guess that these guys would be hilarious until I met up with the rest of the gang attending and then we started to question if they would be dated? Then while we were watching the show the Chuckle Vision song came on and they got an almighty cheer. Glad to say they are still bloody funny years later!
The Magnificent Seven had some good old puns in their lines, cheery as ever but I'm still very much trying to figure out how they managed to stay knelt down for so long.
Snow White and Prince Harry were true to their love story and very much kept that alive with their hopeless romance.
The Queens Men / Flawless, I mean, yeah they can dance but I wasn't blown away and I'm still unsure why there were so many dance breaks needed? I've tried to understand what their role was but all I can conclude to is that they were on Britain's Got Talent and young kids know who they are.

  To me it seemed like a really interactive show that kids of all ages (including big kids from the Chuckle Brothers era) would absolutely love. The set design was amazing, from the scene changes to the flying dragon coming out and over the crown, the giant bat carrying the old evil queen to the terrifying magic mirror. So much thought and creativity has gone into every aspect of this production and it really does pay off.

There was obviously puns and innuendos through out more than I could shake a cucumber at, I think I was either laughing, booing or jumping out of my seat through out the whole show. Queen Lucretia has won my heart though, absolutely FAB-U-LOUS darling (even if the costume for the last number pretty much blinded me with all that sparkle)

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is running from 15 Dec 17 - 7 Jan 18 , there's still some tickets available which you can have a look at here.
I had so much fun watching this performance!
Emily-May x

* complementary experience in exchange for a review. All views are of course my own, please see disclaimer.