Dick Whittington and His Cat

Synopsis

Pantomime about a boy and his cat who set off to London to make their fortune - usually with Dick's Brother (Idle Jack) and mother - there they usually meet Baron Fitzwarren and sail away to seek treasure. In some versions King Rat goes with them to steal the treasure, in others they reach a land infested with rats where they haven't heard of cats and Dick does a deal, returning home rich he becomes Lord Mayor of London. Based extremely loosely on a real person (Richard Whittington, 1350 to 1423), there is a statue of the cat outside the Whittington Hospital in North London where Dick is supposed to have heard the bells say "Turn again Whittington, Lord Mayor of London" as he trudged away from the city. First recorded panto on this theme was in 1814.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 5 December 2010

Although it loses the plot slightly in the second act, director Steve Marmion’s second urban pantomime for Hammersmith is a great improvement on last year, with Steven Webb’s pasty-faced, likeable West Country lad from “Gloucesesesester” finding his feet and his destiny in a London badly hit by the recession.

His cool cat friend is Paul J Medford’s fur-lined rapper, and his chief opponent is Simon Kunz’s marvellously gestured King Rat, who aims to be “King of Crumbs” in Alice Fitzwarren’s dad’s bakery; the business is doing so badly they all set sail to sell cup cakes and croissants in Timbuctoo, but the shipwreck lands them in “Timbucthree.”

Alice (Rosalind James) is told by Dad (Kulvinder Ghir) “to get thee to a bunnery,” where Shaun Prendergast’s Sarah the Cook, with a voice like a gravel mixer and a bosom that squeaks like a klaxon, takes on Dick as her assistant; the false accusation and his dismissal means that he and Cat follow the party as stowaways.

...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review

Related Whatsonstage.com Articles

Lyric Panto Gets Vocal Support from Fry & Davies??? More»