Guide 2 Bath Interview

Thanks Vivienne for making sense of my ramblings...  

Vivienne Kennedy interviews Nick Wilton who will be starring as Dame Trott in Jack and the Beanstalk at Theatre Royal Bath this Christmas.

In a few weeks time CBeebies presenter 
Katy Ashworth and professional charmer Nigel Havers will be making their way to Bath where they will star in the Theatre Royal’s pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk. 
They will be joined by panto favourite 
Jon Monie, who this year plays Simple Simon, and by Nick Wilton, who will be donning frocks and heels as Dame Trott. 
Recently I caught up with Nick during a press call at Bailbrook House Hotel for a chat about life as a pantomime dame.

You’re no stranger to the frocks and heels of a pantomime dame, having been playing the role since the turn of the century, which sounds so long ago...
Yes, such a shame I didn’t start a year earlier, so that I could have seen the new millennium in really, but I couldn’t get a “Dame” before that.
It took about three years to get one. I decided when I was 40 that I wanted to do it. I’d done a couple of pantomimes playing the comic when I was younger and doing kids telly, I did one in 1987 and the other in 1991, then in 2000, having seen a few programmes about Dames... I always like those TV programmes about “the business”...I thought “ooh, that really ties in with what I do”; I was doing lots of comedy sketches at the time. It seemed like a role that would really allow me to do all the things I like doing.
I started asking people if I they’d let me be Dame but I couldn’t find anyone, they all wanted someone who’d done it before. I was in Salisbury doing the farce See How They Run, asked there, and they said yes, I could do it. That was Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, in Salisbury, in 2000.

Has it been every year since or have you had some breaks?
Yes, every year since.

Is this your first time in Bath?
No, I’ve been to Bath a couple of times. I think the first time was in 1988 when I was in a farce with Brian Rix, Dry Rot, and then I think I’ve done a couple of other plays since – I was here as Samuel Pepys in a wig and there was something else, but I can’t remember what it was...another farce probably, Run For Your Wife.
This is my first Bath pantomime though because of course Chris Harris was always here...

Big footsteps to follow in...
Indeed. I did do my first pantomime with Chris though, so he has been my inspiration. I loved his clowning. I’m not a clown like him but we do have a similar style, very much a man in a dress.

Have you seen this year’s dresses?
They’re all mine. I’ve built up quite a wardrobe over the years.
There is one more I might buy; I’m going up to London on Tuesday to have a look at a possible finale costume. 
It’s easier in a way. When I started they were made for me, but as I’ve started working with different producers they do expect you to have a few of your own and the collection’s just built up over the years. I suppose I’ve got 15 or 16 now and I use about 10 in each show.I tend to use the same 10 to be honest and I haven’t got any Aladdin ones...if I get in to Aladdin anywhere I have to beg, steal or borrow because I haven’t got anything Chinese themed, but I can normally get away with that.

Do you have a favourite?
There’s a very nice daisy one, which I got online from a person that I then found out runs the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain, which restores the graves of all the old stars. They just got Dan Leno’s, who was one of the great Dames; they’ve got the responsibility for looking after his grave...anyway, for some reason, this man made costumes too and this particular one is a short little dress with a Bo Peep hat.  I probably will be wearing that. It normally gets a laugh.

The Dame is quite a full on role...quite physical...10 costume changes alone are going to be quite tiring...
Yes, you’re either on stage or changing. Sometimes I think I quite like the beginning of the pantomime, because you do come on quite late, normally 10 or 15 or even 20 minutes into the show, but after that, yes, it’s full on.
The Dame didn’t used to have so many costume changes but it’s gradually become part of the tradition.
My costumes are very much character costumes, they’re not gags in their own right...you know what I mean? I don’t come on dressed as an ice-cream cone or a box of fries.

How do you prepare? Do you have a fitness regime that you follow through the year?
Not really. Considering the size and shape I am, I’ve got quite a lot of energy!
I am trying to do a bit of cycling at the moment. If I’m at home and I need to go to the shops, I go by bike, and one of them’s up quite a big hill!

What are you looking forward to about spending Christmas in Bath?
Oh, just being here, I love Bath.
I found a nice place to have coffee, just near the theatre, yesterday, so I was pleased about that.
I haven’t been here for a few years, so it has changed a lot. It’s lovely though, it always has a nice ambience, and I do love the Pump Rooms. My wife’s coming down with me so I’m sure we will have a tea at some point. It's such a nice city to walk around.

When it comes to January will it be a relief to lose the heels, or will you miss them?
It normally is. Although I love doing it, it’s quite nice when January comes. We normally go on holiday, somewhere hot. I always figure we’ve earned it. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me this afternoon and I hope you have a lot of fun during your stay in Bath and enjoy your holiday afterwards.

READ VIVIENNE'S INTERVIEW WITH JON MONIE HERE 

READ VIVIENNE'S INTERVIEW WITH NIGEL HAVERS HERE 
 

 Jack and the Beanstalk opens with an evening performance on Thursday 10 December and runs until Sunday 10 January. 
There are no shows on Monday 14 and Friday 18 December and the cast are also given Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off. 
For the rest of the run there will be two performances each day, with the exception of New Year’s Eve when there is only a matinee.
For further information, including ticket prices, and to book online, visit www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Bath 2015 Panto Launch

Photos from Jack & the Beanstalk panto launch at Bailbrook House Hotel. 

 

  

Jack & The Beanstalk, Bath

This year, my 8th season with UK Productions, marks my 16th consecutive Christmas playing Dame, and I'm really excited to be playing The Theatre Royal, Bath;
though it is slightly daunting to be stepping into the boots of Chris Harris,
who directed and played Dame there for so many years.
Chris was my inspiration to play Dame; I was was Captain's Mate with him in my first panto,
Dick Whittington, at The Theatre Royal Plymouth, way back in 1987
(starring Anita Harris, Bernard Cribbins, Andrew Sachs and Glyn Owen).
It was such fun doing classic routines with Chris and Bernard - especially A Little Bit of Heaven, and an acrobatic act with Chris on invisible flying wires - I learnt so much from them both.

I'm also looking forward to being back with some old friends: lovely Sarah Day (Princess Jill),

who I last worked with in Sleeping Beauty at The Anvil in Basingstoke in 2010 - she's choreographing the show too, which is great, because she's very, very patient;

 the delightful David Alcock (playing King) - we were both in Jack & The Beanstalk

in New Brighton a couple of years ago; 

David Barrett (Jack), who I was with in Aladdin in Malvern in 2008 - Great voice!

and Director, Michael Gattrell, who I've known for years but never actually worked with.

 And if that wasn't enough there's  there's all the new friends to make!

Jon Monie, who I've seen in previous Bath Pantos - Really funny!

the irrepressible Katy Ashworth; and, of course,

Nigel Havers (who I'm really looking forward to flirting with!)

 

ALTBLACKPOOL Review

Pantomime season is upon us once again…Oh yes it is. This year’s offering from The Grand Theatre is the ever popular tale of Sleeping Beauty. Featuring a cast of well-known faces, the show opened on Friday to a packed auditorium...

Nurse Nelly (Nick Wilton) treated us to her version of George Formby classic, Auntie Maggie’s Special Home Made Remedy. Slapstick and mayhem followed as she and Billy (Steve Royle) attempted to prepare food for the party. Watch out for the echo scene, it’s really funny..

Space limitations have made it impossible to list the many hilarious antics of Silly Billy and Nurse Nelly interspersing this fairy-tale love story. A theme of ‘Everything Is Awesome’ ran through the show and the acting, singing and dancing certainly were. Tickets will make a wonderful pre or post Christmas treat for the young and the young at heart.

Scarlett Clegg.     http://www.altblackpool.co.uk/review-sleeping-beauty

What's On Stage Review

Sleeping Beauty (Grand Theatre, Blackpool)

A good panto should impress the whole whole family. 

The Grand's Sleeping Beauty does exactly that, says Sandra Mangan. 

6 Dec 2014 • Blackpool

The department stores have been playing festive songs for weeks now and you're probably already sick of mince pies, but it isn't really Christmas until the panto season begins.
It has truly arrived now, as Sleeping Beauty has arrives at the Grand in Blackpool – oh yes it does – and a packed audience really got into the spirit of things - the night I attended - booing, cheering and yelling ‘Hello Billy' in all the right places.
Fans of traditional pantomime will find much that's familiar here – including some corny jokes that even Christmas Cracker makers would probably turn down – but that's all part of the fun. And don't forget, a large proportion of the audience is seeing a live stage show for the first time, so everything is magical to them.
These theatre newbies lap it up, if the noise levels are anything to go by. Sure, we could hear the distant rustle of sweet wrappers and even a crying baby close by, but panto is a form to be savoured, whatever your age.
The producers pulled out all the stops in the musical numbers and ran the gamut of generations in the process. We had Everything is Awesome from The Lego Movie for the young 'uns, a pastiche of Auntie Maggie's "Remedy", made famous by George Formby, for the oldies, and a cast performance of Happy for everyone.
Plot innovations included an appearance by a full-sized Tardis and even a larger than life projected, fire-eating dragon – and that same projection technique was employed to dazzling effect when the handsome Prince Philip was whisked forward 100 years to kiss his sleeping Princess Rose.
But all the technological trickery in the world is useless if the cast isn't up to the task in hand. Thankfully the team here do a grand job, with Hayley Kay as Fairy Snowflake and Steve Royle as Silly Billy giving the standout performances of the night.
The sumptuously costumed Jennifer Ellison is booed to the rafters as Caraboose and appears to relish it – although I was a little disappointed that this star of West End musicals wasn't given more chances to show off her vocal talents skills.
Phoebe Lewis and Lewis Bradley are a heartwarming Princess and Prince, and Michael Chance as the King and Nick Wilton as Nurse Nelly offer sterling support – but a special mention must go out for the lovely little dancers from the locally-based Barbara Jackson Theatre Arts Centre, who display a stage presence and skill way beyond their years.
There was, surprisingly, no principal boy and I never once heard ‘he's behind you!', but the excited chatter from the young theatregoers as they left the theatre was enough to warm even Scrooge's heart. On this showing, panto is alive and well – and flourishing.

Sleeping Beauty Blackpool

Thrilled to be back for my 7th season with UK Productions (my 15th consecutive Christmas playing Dame). This year I'm playing Nurse Nelly in Sleeping Beauty at the Blackpool Grand - a wonderful Matcham theatre. It's great working with local legend Steve Royle, who is playing Silly Billy (his 12th panto at the Grand), and to be back with lovely Michael Chance, playing the King, who I was with in Sleeping Beauty in Basingstoke in 2010. It's a terrific company this year and Jennifer, Lewis, Hayley and Phoebe are all great fun too.

Blackpool Grand Website

Review 3 - Liverpool Post

December 19, 2013
Review by Philip Key

There's something comforting about traditional pantomimes with their familiar stories, familiar characters and familiar jokes.

What really matters is how well they are done and this production at New Brighton is done very well.

The cast is excellent, the costumes just fine and the settings are typically storybook. And for those who like music with their stories, there is a lot, barely a moment passing without a song, a dance, or both.

Writer Andrew Ryan provided the basic script of village lad selling the family cow for a bag of beans, growing a giant beanstalk and climbing it to defeat the evil giant in Cloudland but director Scott Ritchie says both he and his cast added their own topical elements.

That includes references to the recent New Brighton flood ("Morrisons is awash with bargains - there is a sale, a rowing boat..."). Fleshcreep calling the kids "plebs" and numerous name checks for places like  Caldy, Rock Ferry and Seacombe.

The show is very much a team effort with everyone getting a chance to shine including Liverpool singer Sonia, now something of a panto veteran, playing the Vegetable Fairy, a fairy who keeps forgetting which panto she is in.

Bubbling with high spirits, she also gets to sing her number one hit You'll never Stop Me From Loving You.

Wirral-born television children's  presenter Emma Nowell is a perfect princess, a beautiful blonde with a lovely singing voice while fellow kids' TV presenter Ed Petrie is Jack, her love interest and unlikely hero.

There is plenty of comedy with a red-nosed Nick Wilton as the ample Dame Trott bustling all over the stage, a likeable King from David Alcock and Mark James full of non-stop fun as Simple Simon. He often pops up with a daft invention including a DVD recorder ( a DVD stuck on a musical recorder) and delivers some of the old gags with aplomb ("It may be rubbish, but at least it's British rubbish").

Liverpool actor Mark Moraghan bellows to great effect as the evil Fleshcreep while the giant (Jon Kindon) is, well, gigantic.

Traditional elements include a ghost scene ("It's behind you!"), cream pies in the face, a pantomime cow and lots of lively dance scenes with a host of dancers, mostly from local dance and theatre schools.

A three-piece band under Steve Allan Jones delivers great music and in a nice touch they are joined at one stage by numerous animal puppets.

Overall this is a happy experience, indeed the essence of what pantomime is all about.