Pinocchio: A Traditional Christmas Pantomime - Zealous Productions (13 December 2024)

Silliness is hard work. And make no mistake, Pinocchio is gloriously silly in all the right ways. This level of silliness also takes an inordinate amount of talent, on and off the stage. I rarely mention producers in my reviews, however, Dixie Farinosi continues to make such smart decisions as she builds a distinctive brand that embraces excellence and sheer entertainment value.

First and foremost, the array of talent onstage is exceptional. It would be easy to dismiss this as “just a panto” but when you have luminaries in Brendan Hanson, Elethea Sartorelli, Lauchlan Edward Bain, and Vincent Hooper treading the boards with exciting new talent such as Emily Lambert and two recent - as in last month - WAAPA graduates in Ellen Ebbs (playing the titular role) and Ben Goldsbrough, you're showcasing the quality and depth of talent in Perth. Farinosi herself even manages to find time to play a character on the boo-hiss side of the ledger. Throw in a Dame played with considerable panache by Matt Dyktynski and an ensemble full of lead performers in their own right and you have a killer lineup. 

The names in the creative team are equally impressive with most having worked with Zealous Productions before. You sense this is a tight-knit group at the top of their game, all working towards a common goal with expertise and passion. We'll come to the individuals later; suffice to say that the show looks and sounds fantastic.

Now, there's no doubt there is a recognisable formula at work with these big pantomimes. The call and response; the establishment of an item - a string of sausages here - that the audience must guard with vocal admonishment of any who dare approach; the aforementioned Dame who will invariably single out someone from the audience for special attention (you lucky boy, Chris!); the machine gun delivery of bad puns; local references designed to provoke a parochial response; clearly defined "goodies" to cheer and "baddies" to boo; with a track list of recognisable classics that the audience can sing and dance along to. 

What strikes me on opening night though is that the wildcard that makes the formula work so effectively is the audience itself. Especially one full of young children who are so honest and uncensored with their reactions. The unfettered energy the audience emits is embraced by such a talented cast and there is a strange alchemy that comes into play that's a delight to watch and be a part of. 

The story itself has been transposed to 1970s Fremantle with our own "pleasure island", Rottnest, featuring in the second act. All the familiar elements are there - the kindly Geppetto; his puppet creation who wants to be a real boy; the Blue Fairy who partially grants Pinocchio his wish; the boy who leads Pinocchio astray in Lampwick; and, of course, everyone's favourite conscience in insect form, Jiminy Cricket. Oh, and a whale.

Everything is bright and bold starting with Katie Williams' costume design which has fun with a peak disco vibe for the ensemble; plenty of seventies flourishes especially for Lampwick; the Italian themed drag outfit for the Dame, Mamma Mia; and the fantastical elements that bring the more fanciful characters to life. One of those is Emily Lambert who looks divine as the Blue Fairy (cheer!) and kicks us off in style with a commanding presence and beautiful singing voice. Aiding the distinctive character stylings are an impressive set of wigs by Manuao TeAtonga and there's a lot of hat work going on including a cunning disguise that would fool even Clark Kent. 

The lighting design (Matthew Erren) is bold and vibrant to enhance the essential fairy tale nature of proceedings with terrific projections throughout to establish the various locations. Shenae White's choreography is playful with its own disco inspired energy while also faithfully recreating the classics in numbers such as The Time Warp and YMCA. 

While closing song Blame It On The Boogie may encapsulate the seventies theme; it's the music of Queen that buttresses some major plot points - A Kind Of Magic for Pinocchio's transformation with Another One Bites The Dust being the signature tune for our leading villain (boo!) Stromboli played with strutting insouciance by Lauchlan Edward Bain who revels in the audience's mock disdain. Bain has a powerhouse voice and a sneering presence that is electrifying. 

Stromboli's accomplices are a stylish Dixie Farinosi as Signora Volpe (boo!) and Vincent Hooper's Signore Gatto (hiss!) who looks and behaves like a reject from a Cats casting call... and I'm talking the movie here, not the musical. It's a wonderfully over-the-top, cat-astrophe of a performance. Oh look, I can do bad puns too! Oh no you can't! Oh yes I -- sorry. Where were we?

On the positive side of the ledger, Elethea Sartorelli (yay!) is an absolute delight as she prances around the stage as Jiminy Cricket. Sartorelli's onstage charisma is always a formidable asset but it's that glorious voice when she belts out Jiminy's theme song New York, New York that seals the deal. Brendan Hanson as Gepetto (nawww!) felt a tad under-utilised in the first act but seeing he's also the director he only has himself to blame! However, he too has such a warm stage presence that when Geppetto's big moment comes he has a whale of a time (okay, I'll stop now) as he builds into a show stopping moment with All By Myself. Matt Dyktynski thrives as the requisite Dame and has no fear of being the butt of the joke while dishing out plenty of sass himself.  

Which brings us to Ellen Ebbs as Pinocchio (cheers!) and Ben Goldsbrough as Lampwick (more cheers!). Both have had a stellar year in a stellar graduating class at WAAPA. Goldsbrough is terrific as the comic foil quickly winning audience empathy with his deliberately bad puns and dubious pizza making skills. It's such an assured performance for his first professional gig. That's before we get to his singing which is divine and probably caught most unawares given the heavy lifting he was doing with so much broadly accented schtick.  

Ellen Ebbs has more than a touch of star quality. She lends her Pinocchio a fundamental sense of decency with the character being easily led astray because of it. Ebbs has a magnificent singing voice and, if anything, the production didn't make enough of that talent. I was waiting for her to cut loose on a big number, however, the tap sequence leading into a very slick Bye Bye Bye is when you could feel the production change gears and showcase Ebbs' undeniable ability. I was also delighted when the cast cleared out leaving Ebbs and Goldsbrough onstage together to lead the traditional Christmas song. It was a lovely touch. 

Other highlights: Tate Bennett wandering out, guitar in hand, to sing the Gilligan's Island theme song was so oddly bizarre that I couldn't stop laughing. The flubs - and there were a few - from corpsing to a hilariously slow pickup on a spotlight to a performer stepping on a cue and literally resetting a scene - simply added to the fun because there was so much goodwill between company and audience.

Musical director Joshua James Webb leads the regular band of Alex Barker (Drums), Tommi Flamenco (Bass guitar) and Jarrad Van Dort (Lead Guitar) and when you're referencing Queen there are some tasty guitar licks indeed. I mean, the depth on the bench is so ridiculously good that Jackson Harper Griggs and Allen Blachford are named as Associate MD and Associate Director!

This is another hit for Zealous Productions. It's enormous fun fuelled by enormous talent and hard work. The kids will love it and there is more than enough broad humour and innuendo to keep the adults grinning. Plus, who doesn't like to shout at actors and have a little boogie in their seat? 

Pinocchio is on at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco all the way up until Christmas Eve. 

Sleeping Beauty - Zealous Productions (20 December 2023)

On the drive home after a fun night at the theatre my mind wanders to two topics. One is how savvy Zealous Productions and Founder/Creative Director Dixie Johnstone are when it comes to staging these big, end-of-year pantomimes; the other is the wonderful impact they have on their audience. The two go hand in hand and there's no doubt that the Christmastime panto is making a mark on the Perth theatrical scene. Let's start with the savvy...

First and foremost they feature top line talent both onstage and off. Yes, the shows may be silly in nature but the creative skill involved is formidable. Then there's the commitment to local talent but also nurturing the next generation of stars with a willingness to cast performers who've only graduated from WAAPA mere weeks ago in key roles. In this case, Cameron Taylor who plays Prince Frederick the First of Fremantle... son of King Kevin the Kourageous of Kwinana, obviously. 

Stage the shows at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco, a big venue that will attract big crowds as the quality of the production makes itself apparent with the right content at the right time of year. Ratchet everything up to eleven from the choreography (Allen Blachford) to the lighting (Richard Timms), the costuming (Katie Elizabeth Williams) and wigs & makeup (Manuao Teatonga), the choice of musical numbers, the eagerness to embrace the silliness and engage an audience of all ages, and, perhaps most notably, have fun doing it. In all this Sleeping Beauty is a major success. 

The roster of talent is undeniable and there's clearly a core group of trusted creatives and performers the company keep returning to. For good reason. They're bloody good at what they do. Brendan Hanson who played one of the 'ugly step-sisters' in Cinderella two years ago is back as director this time. He knows the rhythms and key beats of any good pantomime and plays up to those elements with aplomb. The call and response is set up early. The positioning of key items on stage and their significance is made clear. The good and evil of it all is established with clarity. Hanson also sets up the eighties vibe from the get go with a Cyndi Lauper classic that acts almost as a mission statement for the show. Girls, goblins, princes, fairies, evil sidekicks, and Cameron from the front row all just wanna have fun.  

Musical Director and Arranger Joshua James Webb runs with the retro theme to deliver the perfect mix tape of well-known songs tailor made for the vocal talent he has on hand. And, oh my goodness, what voices they are, crisply presented with sound design by Michael Fletcher. Amongst all the zaniness there comes a time when a gem emerges and here it's A Thousand Years by Christina Perri that is beautifully sung by Taylor and Joshua Firman. But such interludes of quiet introspection are rare because there are aisles to be danced in and wands to be waved to a diet of classics such as You Can't Hurry Love, The Loco-motion, a wonderful mashup of Aretha Franklin's Think and Respect by the duelling fairies Fairy Nuff (Maree Cole) and Carabosse (Elethea Sartorelli), Time Warp, Holding Out For A Hero, and many more before we end with a Wham classic (don't worry Whamageddon devotees, you're safe) and a Christmas staple. My favourite was the arrangement of I Put A Spell On You, a song perhaps made most famous by Nina Simone, that Sartorelli makes her own in the most delightful of character driven ways.

There is an embarrassment of riches with the whole cast - Amy Fortnum looks and sounds divine as Princess Beauty and has a wonderful sequence with Firman during a quintessential 80s movie song. Maree Cole establishes and maintains the fun tone immediately with her good fairy. Sartorelli is glorious as the evil fairy who reminded me of Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein... if Blucher held a twenty one year old grudge and owned a schpinning veel. Firman is a crowd favourite as the loyal court jester who mysteriously turns into John Howard a hundred years hence before regaining his vim. Timothy How revels in one of pantomime's great traditions playing Queen Doreen with imperious scorn, never more so than when puns fall flat which is bound to happen when they're being fired off with machinegun regularity. Taylor prances around as any brave prince should while Tate Bennett slinks in evildom as Lurgy. They're supported by an excellent ensemble that enhance the energy and crowd interaction. Props too for ZP's regular band of Webb, Jarrad Van Dort, Tommi Flamenco & Alex Barker. 

As for the second part, the impact? This is where a little magic happened. I ended up talking to a lovely woman from a remote country town in South Australia who had brought along her young daughter to see the show. They were in Perth for a fortnight and had never been to a theatre production before. To watch her daughter dancing in the aisle, waving a fairy wand (purchased at interval), and to see the beaming smile on her face was absolutely priceless. She wanted to meet the cast and outside I saw her having a picture taken with Sartorelli and Cole, still in character, in another smart move by the company. There was a long queue down Rokeby Road of children with their parents waiting to do the same. What a gift for that young girl and what memories she might always retain. That is why shows like this are so vital and alive. I hope you remember it for a long time, Letty!

Sleeping Beauty runs right up until Christmas Eve with 1pm and 6pm shows each day. 

Cinderella: A Traditional Christmas Pantomime - Zealous Productions (22 December 2021)

If the success of a pantomime can be measured by the level of audience interaction then Dixie Johnstone’s Zealous Productions has a hit on its hands. The large number of children at today’s matinee were wildly enthusiastic and fully engaged throughout the entire opening show. No small feat for a production that runs some two hours. Many of the shouted remarks were funny in the way only kids can make them. My favourite was the boy who kept referring to Cinderella’s friend Buttons (Tate Bennett) as “Button Boy”.

This level of participation in all the traditional hallmarks of a panto is set up and encouraged by a wonderfully talented cast that is having a whale of a time. The youngsters catch on to the call and response nature of the show almost immediately. They heartily booed the Baroness (Penny Shaw), squealed in warning as instructed whenever anyone went near Buttons’ gift-wrapped present, and were delighted by the exemplary wand waving antics of the Fairy Godmother (Elethea Sartorelli) who conjures up the magic to make dreams come true. I’m not sure what they made of the ugly step-sisters Danni (Brendan Hanson) and Fanny (John O’Hara) who supplied more of the sly adult asides to keep the grown-ups chuckling. But I do know they were enchanted by Amber Scates who is thoroughly likeable as the put-upon Cinderella before transforming into the beautiful ‘Princess Starlight’ as she attends the prince’s ball. There she meets Prince Charming himself, played with winning, well, charm by a dashing Ethan Jones.

Lachlan Obst plays Dandini, the prince’s manservant, with alliterative dexterity while Robert Hofmann adds a little Ol Blue Eyes himself as the henpecked Baron. Then there’s the ensemble of Bri Caracciolo, Georgina Charteris, Tory Kendrick, and Phoebe Tempra who revel in Allen Blachford’s choreography and add vocal punch to the bigger numbers.

Sartorelli and Bennett drive the plot machinations and set the tone from the very beginning. Bennett is so affable that he instantly has the audience in the palm of his hand. It’s a winning turn and I was happy to see him (and Tory Kendrick) outside taking photos with starstruck children immediately after the show finished. I understand there will be a rotating roster of performers doing this after each show which is a real treat for the youngsters. Sartorelli is joyous as the Fairy Godmother and irresistible when the wand becomes a faux microphone as she belts out One Night Only as the first act closer, a memorable highlight.

The other major highlight comes in the second act and reminded me why I love theatre. For all the broad humour, witty puns, panto antics, and pretend magic, when Jones and Scates duet on Rewrite the Stars it is actually magical in a way you only get onstage. Beautifully sung and heartfelt with a gorgeous backdrop, both performers look amazing in costumes by Brooklyn Rowcroft and sound divine.

The show itself looks great – from the costuming to clever lighting (Brad Voss) and set design (John Johnstone) – with real treats such as Cinderella’s ball gown, the pumpkin inspired carriage and its horses, and midnight looming over every moment with a large clock backdrop. The makeup (Manuao TeAotonga) and wigs (Pip) are bold and delightfully garish in the case of Danni and Fanny. It took me a full ten minutes to recognise Hanson and I only discovered it was O’Hara as Fanny whilst consulting the digital program at the interval! I love that and the two of them gleefully chewed more scenery than all of the Jaws films combined.  

There is a mixture of live band (Tommi Flamenco, Alex Barker & Jarrad Van Dort) and recorded tracks under Musical Director Joshua Webb with well-known songs from Madonna, Beyonce, Sinatra and Kool and the Gang amongst others. Director Peter Cumins keeps proceedings moving briskly though he allows plenty of room for such a talented cast to play to the audience and improvise where necessary.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the surprise cameo of ‘John from Subiaco’ who caught the eye of Danni from the second row. He played it pretty cool but I believe stardom could be just around the corner.

Sure, not all the puns and jokes land and there is a scattershot approach to various Perth references shoehorned into the script but this is a fun production that the children adored. With the breadth of talent on display it’s also well worthwhile for us bigger kids. A strong recommend for a family friendly outing during the holiday season.

Now playing at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco at 1pm and 6pm 23-24 & 28-29 December.