CHRISTMAS would never be the same if Bad Fairies captured Santa Claus and imprisoned him far away from the North Pole to stop him from delivering presents to children.
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Would anybody be able to rescue him?
People will be able to find that out if they see Santa Claus The Pantomime, a lively and engaging show for people of all ages that is being staged by ATWEA College Creative Arts and Music at its Creative Arts Space (CAS) in Hamilton, with five performances between December 14 and 20.
The show was put together by Lia Bundy, ATWEA's Creative Arts Course Co-ordinator, and has many elements used in pantomimes.
There are many bright and colourful characters, a lively mix of Christmas songs and musical theatre and pop numbers. And the characters interact with the audience.
The pantomime, with Kim Dingle as co-director, has a cast which is a mix of 11 adults and 11 children aged five to 12. And the costumes will bring out the fairy tale nature of the story.
Dakota Dunlap, for example, plays Simon Snow, the Snowman, and initially is seen in a long, wedding-style, white gown.
He was once a human being, but was transformed into a snowman by the Bad Fairies.
But, as the story develops, he is increasingly seen in a variety of different costumes and can't recall whether he was a man or woman.
Ayla Kaan is Santa's adopted daughter, Crystal, who also wears long white garb, and, as she is growing up, is in search of true love with someone she can be with forever.
The Bad Fairies kidnap Santa from the North Pole and take him to New York.
Aretha Williams, portrays Nanny, who all the members of Santa's team see as their mother or grandma.
She notes that she tries to control them when they run amok.
Nanny is also in love with Santa and keeps trying to tell him that. "But he is totally oblivious of me being in love with him," she said.
The Bad Fairies kidnap Santa from the North Pole and take him to New York.
And another bad character, Big Foot, who is half a human and half a monster, captures many of the story's characters when they are on their way to New York.
The other characters include Beatrix the Bad, who wants to make sure that Santa can't deliver presents this year, and Gloria the Good, who tries the stop Beatrix's plans.
As well as interacting at times with the characters, audience members get the chance to join in the wide mix of songs, which were made popular by singers including Frank Sinatra and Hi-5, the children's musical theatre group that featured in a television series with that name.
Many of the performers in the show did Atwea singing and acting courses.
The CAS Theatre is at 145 Beaumont Street, Hamilton. The show runs for 90 minutes, including interval, with 7pm performances on Saturday and Sunday, December 14 and 15, and Thursday and Friday, December 19 and 20.
There is also a 2pm Sunday show on December 15. Tickets, $15, can be booked through www.trybooking.com.
Theatre Review
Love, Life and Musicals and Cavalleria Rusticana
Opera Hunter, at the NTC Theatre, Lambton. Ended Saturday.
THIS Opera Hunter work, which had an engaging collection of songs from popular musicals and a brisk 65-minute opera, confirmed just how strong and broad are the talents of performers from in and around Newcastle.
The first half especially had watchers applauding loudly, as the singers, wearing garb that reflected the characters whose numbers they were performing, were very engaging.
Michael Blaxland, who directed both halves, again showed his capacity to make musicals come very much alive.
There were very bright choral numbers in Act One, opening with the swinging It's The Hard-Knock Life from Annie, with the very brisk There is Nothing Like a Dame from South Pacific at midpoint, which had the singers, all but one of whom were males, in military garb bringing out the feelings of navy sailors during World War II, and the act's finale, Sabbath Prayer, from Fiddler on the Roof, likewise revealing how people feel in awkward communal situations.
And the soloists also had watchers entranced: Nick Stabler with the movingly questioning Why God, from Miss Saigon; Rachel Davies likewise showing concerns in She Used to be Mine from the new Waitress the Musical; Wayne Rogers in his colourful female garb underlining I Am What I Am, from La Cage aux Folles; PJ Willis in the lively inquisitive Where is the Life, from Kiss Me Kate; Wendy Ratcliffe's very bright title number from Cabaret; Samuel Thomas-Holland's moving Joanna from Sweeney Todd; and Michael Saunders' regretful This Nearly was Mine from South Pacific.
While the singers also did a good job in Cavalleria Rusticana, which shows the interactions between different people in a rustic Sicilian town after a man who had to serve in the army returned home, the storyline didn't come out all that clearly, even though the lyrics had been translated into English.
This watcher felt that the large choral group spent too much time on stage because the relationships often have people trying to find or hide from each other.
And the upset nature of the returned former soldier, when he found that his fiancée had married another man in his absence, and then became attracted to another young village woman, likewise wasn't as sharp as it should have been.
Still, it was often a bright work.