Regent Theatre – Dick Whittington

Panto season opening night at Regent Theatre …… a brilliant fun filled night for all!!

   Photo credit Claralou Photography

Well, it’s pantomime time again and the Regent Theatre celebrates 20 years of Jonathan Wilkes performing in the annual Panto which this year is ‘Dick Whittington’.  Jonathan performed with his usual enthusiasm fun and professionalism.  This year also sees the return of the wonderful Christian Patterson as Sarah the cook and Dick’s mum after 2 years absence reuniting with Jonathan and Kai Owen as King Rat.  The show is everything you want in a Panto – great music, dancing, audience participation and the trio were very cheeky in their innuendo which left adults and children in fits of laughter albeit at different things. They clearly were having as much fun on stage as we were watching.

It was not London but the streets of Stoke on Trent that was paved with gold in this interpretation of the traditional story and of course no Panto is complete without a baddy and this was superbly performed by Kai Owen and his “boss”  “Supreme Rat” (which was a huge scary rat that was wheeled on and filled the centre of the stage) who had overrun the streets of Stoke. The story was being narrated by the Spirit of Bow Bells a fairy like character played by Gina Murray, and Dick’s love interest was Alice Fitzgerald who ran the Sweet and Oatcake shop.  Dick of course is always accompanied by his trusty cat Tom who was played by Marlee Jay who trained at the Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts a performing arts college set up and run by Jonathan and his wife Nikki.  The ensemble of dancers were all current or past students of Jonathan’s college.

In conclusion I highly recommend this show I can honestly say I have not laughed so much in ages.  It sets up the Christmas season beautifully and long may this tradition continue with Jonathan and co for many years to come!