Sleeping Beauty At Nottingham Theatre Royal REVIEW

Photo courtesy of Nottingham Theatre Royal

Starring that demigod of panto, the irrepressible, irresistible Joe Pasquale, Sleeping Beauty at Nottingham's Theatre Royal is a flash-bang-wallop night of festive fun, bursting at the seams with special effects, FABulous costumes and happy-dancey pizazz.

With truly extraordinary 3D scenes (which confidentially, had us freaking and shrieking with laughter) an amazing flying motorbike which comes up over the stalls and a toweringly- spectacular drag-queen dame, it's a full-on family show with humour catering for kiddies and adults alike, with plenty of local jokes added to boot.

But it's Joe Pasquale's show, arriving on stage with a torrent of loveably-awful gags and then ad-libbing like crazy, torturing his fellow cast members leaving most of them corpsing, no matter how hard they tried to keep straight faces and crazily veering off the rather unimaginative script at all angles.

Glitzy, spangly, sparkly and with that special panto-energy from the all-ages family audience, Sleeping Beauty will get a laugh out of even the most determined Christmas-grouch, slap our thighs if it doesn't.


Sleeping Beauty is at Nottingham Theatre Royal until January 15, full details of show times and ticket prices can be found on the Royal Centre website here