The Grand Opera House pantomime is certainly a big show in town. Veteran performer May McFettridge is serenaded onto the stage (for the 35th year) with her own song. This year she’s playing the toymaker May Geppetto, creator of the
Pinocchio puppet who has turned into a real boy (Adam C Booth). Together with Jiminy Cricket (Paddy Jenkins in his 20th year in a row with May) and the Blue Faerie (Jayme-Lee Zanoncelli), they must help the boy “look for the small voice inside to tell right from wrong” or else face turning back into a puppet.
They’re up against The Great Stromboli (Jolene O’Hara again revelling in the role of the baddie) and her two animal sidekicks – Kitty the Cat (Maeve Byrne) and Phyllis the Fox (Philippa O’Hara) – who plan to kidnap the boy who is economic with the truth and take him to Fantasy Island. (While the script is heavily localised, this watery destination doesn’t cue up any Stephen Nolan jokes, and other shows would have thrown in a Hope Street reference for Jenkins.)
It’s big and brash. Lots of special effects and props are used for a minute or two (sometimes a lot less) and then retired. Pinocchio flies upside down over the heads of the front rows of the audience. A pyrotechnic flash marks every entrance Zanoncelli makes from stage right. There are plenty of fart noises, musical lyric puns, and unfinished risqué sentences.
Although the plot takes a very deliberate jump forward in time over the interval, the story is understood by all to be secondary to the spectacle. A brief cameo by what could pass for the Gallagher brothers is brilliantly staged even though its relevance to the plot is lost in the laughter.
Jenkins’ glittery green outfit shimmers (though sadly his top hat and antennae are too quickly ditched). O’Hara’s Stromboli costume enjoys enormous split shoulders and a whip. Pinocchio’s extending nose could literally put someone’s eye out. The ensemble have taller feathers and so many more of them than NI Opera’s recent
Follies.
‘Uncle’ Phil Shute in the orchestra pit with his live band of four pump out an excruciatingly loud soundtrack throughout. Well known songs are rewritten (eg, Achy Breaky Heart). Classics like In The Navy and YMCA are repurposed. A second act rendition of Don’t Stop Me Now is the musical highlight, showcasing the powerful voices of the O’Hara sisters and Byrne.
While the variety act (like Flawless that might have flown in from
Britain’s Got Talent) has been dropped in recent years, they’re not really missed. The audience are there for the glamour and the glitz. Booth’s zany comedy and endless energy add sparkle to every scene he’s in. (Though what’s with those pockets in his waistcoat?!)
But as the cast take their bows and head to the wings, it is McFettridge/Linehan who lingers on stage, as if basking in the warmth of the audience to recharge his batteries for the next performance. It’s a brutal schedule with 12 shows a week.
Pinocchio runs at the Grand Opera House until Sunday 11 January.
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