Local News designer Mark Taylor and his son Olly, give a raving review of Dick Whittington and his Cat at Newark Palace Theatre.
‘It was epic!’ these were the words that flew out of Olly’s, my 6 years old’s, mouth at the end of a brilliant performance.
On Saturday 11th December, me, my wife and youngest son travelled to Newark in the pouring rain to watch Dick Whittington at the Newark Palace Theatre. We had fantastic seats in the stalls situated just a short distance from the stage.
A smaller than normal cast, due to covid restrictions preventing younger children to preform, did not distract from a fantastic show that people of all ages can enjoy.
The story of Dick Whittington is one that is well known to many of us and if as a family we were to pick out a star of the show, it would have to be ‘Idle Jack’. The wayward son of Sarah the Cook, kept the children in the audience on their toes with a little greeting whenever he arrived on stage. I don’t want to say too much and spoil the show, but a scene half way through where he had a stereo in hand was a particular favourite.
Another special mention should go to Dick’s cat, who had the purrrrrfect (sorry) feline mannerisms and must have been a cat in a previous life!
Idle Jack, who is well named as he didn’t like to wor…. wor… wor…. work and struggled to get ‘that word’ out throughout the performance… His antics even managed to make an appearance at my home this morning while Olly was speaking about what he may do (or may not do!) at school this week!
We were fortunate enough to be invited to stay after the show and ask the cast some questions. One that shocked us and made the show even better was that they only have 10 days to master the show before they were out on stage in front of a crowd! Thus making the performance even more remarkable!
Other questions were answered on the casts favourite parts of the show, it was also interesting to know that the Evil Rat was doing his 15th year of panto and Sarah the Cook has performed in Christmas shows for over 20 years!
Family fun at Dick Whittington in Newark with Olly, Mark and his wife Leanne.
Overall, we had a superb evening and we would recommend this show to everyone. Even now, with COVID restrictions becoming tighter, the audience respected the theatres policy of wearing a mask throughout the performance, which certainly put us at ease.
We’re already looking to book at tickets for next years’ performance of Cinderella!
– Review by Local News Designer, Mark Taylor.
Dick Whittington will be performed until Friday 31st December. For tickets, please visit: www.palacenewarktickets.com
