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Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight
Reviewed by Vanessa Cate
The Pasadena Playhouse
Through Jan. 4
Lythgoe Family Productions returns to the Pasadena Playhouse for its third year of holiday family entertainment. In the style of British Panto, audiences are encouraged to engage and interact with the light-hearted proceedings onstage as the beautiful Princess Aurora (Disney Channel’s Olivia Holt) sets out to wed the Prince of her dreams (Garrett Clayton, also from the Disney Channel) while dodging to curse of the evil Carabosse (Lucy Lawless, Xena : Warrior Princess) with the help of her father the King of Pasadena (Patrick Cassidy) and the Good Fairy (American Idol’s Tamyra Gray). Audiences are instructed and encouraged to “boo” the villain, cheer at the heroine, warn cast members of danger, and even use their own magic powers to help the heroes defeat evil.
True to its roots, this Panto also employs a musical mash-up of modern pop that will appeal to children and parents alike (hand-picked by musical director Michael Orland, the associate musical director for American Idol) including “Party Rock Anthem”, “Footloose”, “Happy”, and more. Also abundant are topical jokes and references, with the comic relief Silly Billy (Ben Giroux) and Panto Dame Nanny Tickle (David Engel in over-the-top drag splendor). Spencer Liff (choreographer of Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance) creates high-energy numbers performed by child and adult dancers.
Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight (written by Kris Lythgoe and directed by Bonnie Lythgoe) seeks to be a spectacle of silliness, and succeeds. A family-friendly holiday affair, this beautiful looking production (with exquisite lighting design by Chris Wilcox and set design by Ian Wilson) has high entertainment value. But often a lack of focus or grounding sends the proceedings into chaos. With an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mentality, pink monkeys in tutus, frightening mice, turkey outfits and more non sequiturs find their way into the show, offering up some brief amusement, but derailing any semblance of momentum in the process. Though it’s all in fun and games, a children’s show with a two-hour run time may have benefited from some trims.
Overall, direction and performances are a bit shallow and shtick-y. Lawless – no stranger to camp, and playing the only strong female character in the show who isn’t actually a man — is disappointingly flaccid as the evil fairy. Holt as our lovely heroine is pretty vapid. And Clayton, as the fairly unlikable but socially normative handsome prince, is fairly charismatic, but needs more work vocally. Stand-out performance of the entire show belongs to Bailey Sok, who leads the pack of “silver team” child dancers. Every time she enters the stage she lights it up, upstaging everyone with her infectious spirit and phenomenal dancing. This is a star in the making.
What is most distressing about the show is the damaging power of many of the jokes and story aimed at impressionable youngsters. A shallow script values Aurora for her looks only. The narcissistic Prince only agrees to the arranged marriage once he sees she’s beautiful. Silly Billy will constantly point out how he gets hot and bothered for the underage Princess. Silly Billy is meanwhile reminded that he himself is not prize material when compared with the breath-taking beauty of Aurora. Silly Billy forges ahead, attempting to win the heart of any girl who breathes and become a heroic knight. But not without reminding us that he’s Jewish. Not to take a piece of children’s theater too seriously, but when you overhear kids in the lobby after the show saying “I want to be Sleeping Beauty because she’s pretty”, or laughing and repeating, “Haha, he’s Jewish!” in this day and age it’s perhaps time to hold ourselves a bit more accountable for what we’re saying to children, even in a light piece of theater.
The Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; Mon., Dec. 29, 7:30 p.m.; Tues.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., noon & 4 p.m. (added mats Dec. 26 & Dec. 30, 4 p.m.); through Jan. 4. (626) 356-7529, https://www.pasadenaplayhouse.org
