CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SPIRIT
Can this actually be the primary Jewish pantomime? Oy vay, absolutely this tradition with its musical genius, ironic jokes , household heat, tall tales and matriarchal intuition for ornamental hyperbole has lengthy been crying out to be amalgamated into the nice Panto custom. The match is uncannily good, so mazeltov to JW3 for commissioning this, and placing it earlier than hordes of riotously thrilled schoolchildren and us admiring adults and gentiles. It can also be good to be in a present the place everybody is aware of completely and reliably the right way to clap and stamp in time, and catches jokes on the wing, at pace.
The story is a folktale mashup: three generations of ladies – formidable younger scentist Red, her mom and her grandmother – should foil the Big Bad Pig (a robust Josh Glanc, wanting uncannily like Giles Coren in a foul temper). He has betrayed his Jewish household by working within the City and taking management of all the ability provide within the Edge of Ware to threaten the lights of Chanukah. He captures Jewish grandmothers, as a result of they’re the strongest recognized type of energy. His sidekick is the neurotic , ashmatic and ineffective Wolf, who he contemptuously calls Fluffy, and who continues to be traumatized from falling down the chimney of the brick home into the pigs’ scorching soup in one other story. The reply to the ability downside is, after all, wind: thus enabling an enormous operating fart joke to string by way of the present. This we cheered to the echo. We’re British. It’s panto.
It’s low-budget (the solid whipping the curtains apart between scenes with brio) however not quick on glitter and motion. It throws into its soup each correct seasonal ingredient: a villain to boo, journeys by way of a magical wooden, gags and ghosts requiring cries of BEHIND YOU , a water-pistol assault on the viewers, a impolite tune and even a bailiff. There’s a little bit of conjuring with eight Martini bottles by Mother Hoodman in her Dreidl-shaped frock (she later seems as an enormous pickle) and whereas she is technically the Dame, she’s performed by Debbie Chazen – what Jewish matriarch would hand over such a task to a mere man? And apart from, her personal mom is a really acrobatic male, Tiago Fonseca: wizened previous Bubbah seems at one level climbing over the railings behind the viewers and somersaulting down the steps previous us , floral pants akimbo; she additionally ties up the massive unhealthy wolf in bunting made from clothesline knickers. Double-dameing, glorious.
Nick Cassembaum’s script is remarkably good: there are a number of customary panto jokes however the perfect are puns on Jewish phrases, most of which I obtained with help from my good pal Shirley: probably the most outrageous being the grievance from the North London cab-driving rat , fed up by competitors from the “Cat Uber” – Katubah! – automobiles. There was additionally a gale of grownup laughter , drowning even the varsity events, when the bailiff claims to be the Pig’s official deputy. Mother Hoodman snorts “I”m so bored of deputies!” . And each minute or so there’s something slyly humorous, as when Red solicitously asks the disguised Wolf “are you comfortable?” to which he shrugs “I make a living..” And when within the ultimate moments an unlikely romance springs with the reformed pig there’s a cry of “marrying out – of species?” To which the response is “Oy, you have to let these things go…”.
The high-spirited self-mockery is warming. . It can also be is musically subtle, underneath Josh Middleton (Accordion, keys, trumpet, percussion, fiddle and guitar, at all times with a klezmerish edge) with terrific songs, by no means overlong, and tunes which cannily mine into Jewish musical genius by pinching tunes all the way in which from Rodgers, Gershwin, Berlin, Sondheim, and Lionel Hart to Amy Winehouse (her “ No No No !” turns into the villain’s anthem ). And whereas I needed to lookup the truth that the author of “We don’t talk anymore” Charles Puth had a Jewish mom, it’s superb to have that tune given to Mother Hoodman about her longstanding “broigus” along with her her personal mom, Bubbah.
Such wonderful Jewish household jokes are woven all by way of it, all the way in which to the massive soup session, however so is Jewish genius. Every panto has a personality who calls for that the viewers ought to shout a magic phrase to assist them in any disaster. Here , it’s the science-minded heroine Little Red (Gemma Barnett) and he or she calls for that at any time when she says “My mind’s gone blank!”the viewers ought to shout THINK! THINK! THINK!. Of course: it’s what Einstein would need. So s a intelligent present, heat and wonderful and humorous , and I couldn’t have carried out higher after grinching out of doing every other 2023 pantomimes after being spoilt by McKellen’s final yr. Chanukah sameach to JW3, Mr Cassenbaum and Mr Middleton and their doughty solid. Take your inside youngster , and any outer ones you’ll be able to lay palms on. Well well worth the gelt!
Box workplace jw3.org.uk. to 7 Jan
