Crewe’s Lyceum panto Sleeping Beauty has the recipe for success

Dec 16 2009 by simon halewood, Crewe Chronicle

WITH a helping of impeccable comic timing, a healthy dose of cheeky innuendo and just the right measure of razor-sharp wit, the star of this year’s Lyceum panto is undoubtable.

From the moment she swoops on to the stage, the hilarious Nurse Nanny Nora, played by Leon Craig, steals the show in the best Crewe panto for years, Sleeping Beauty.

Despite a starry cast including loveable Heartbeat star David Lonsdale as King Bumble and the excellent Rainbow star Jane Tucker, who is underused as good fairy Azuriel, Nanny Nora shines.

Leon Craig bounds around with reckless abandon, donning the traditional array of elaborate costumes and manages to keep the comic mayhem coming.

The dame also develops a winning slapstick double-act with Josh the Jester, played by the effortlessly funny Nick Dutton, with several impressive set-pieces and the obligatory foam pie-making scene.

The writers at Imagine Theatre have produced a magical show for both children and adults.

And, the age-old story of the princess who sleeps for 100 years after pricking her finger on a cursed spinning wheel, is told imaginatively. The sequence in which the characters fly through the air in a time machine stands out and the final battle between Kerry Newell’s dashing Prince Valiant and surely Pantoland’s biggest ever dragon is stunning.

Admittedly, the show is over-long and gets off to a slow start, only bursting into life with the arrival of Nanny Nora, but by the end you will be left wanting more!