A Fairytale for Christmas
Theatre Royal Brighton
Touring
When people ask me to describe Fairytale I tell them. What would happen if St Patrick’s Day collided with the best Christmas party you ever had? ….. A Fairytale for Christmas of course! It’s the ultimate Irish inspired Christmas celebration and a craic-ker of a show.
Ged Graham – Writer and director
It may be early but November sees the beginning of Christmas Shows creeping into our local theatres. This week I decided to get into the spirit and skip along to Brighton to see my first of many festive offerings. A Fairytale for Christmas.
Produced by the same team as the popular touring show ‘Seven Drunken Nights’, this Irish themed Christmas concert ticks many of the same boxes. Lots of light-hearted banter, jokes and popular Celtic songs, but added into the mix are an abundance of Christmas classics, a troop of fleetfooted dancers and plenty of sparkle.
The stage is simply set with a NYC backdrop and Christmas Market Bar (McGraths), which is where the cast gather. Following the opening Christmas bangers, the cast made up of five musician/vocalists and six dancers perform Christmas songs (Step into Christmas, I wish it could be Christmas) Irish Pub Singalongs (Wild Rover, Molly Malone) together with spirited and energic Irish dancing.
Audience participation was actively encouraged, with calls to the audience to ‘clap your hands’, ‘sing–a–long’ and ‘get up and dance’. However, despite the cast’s big smiles and enthusiastic engagement it took the audience a long time to warm up. This was possibly due to it being a too early for Christmas and a sparce audience, but also the pace was disjointed, leaping between full on participation, Irish Singalongs, watching the dancing and an oddly placed ‘O Holy Night’. The second act felt much more cohesive, possibly interval drinks whet the audience’s appetite as they knew what to expect and what was expected from them.
The closer we get to Christmas, the more revelrous ‘A Fairytale at Christmas’ will no doubt become. The cast are brimming with enthusiasm and that will rub off on Christmas partiers.
There are three casts touring the country and therefore A Fairytale at Christmas is able to visit no less than 50 venues within the UK and Ireland, including a big night at the Dominion Theatre in London, so there is plenty of opportunity to see this Christmas Show at your local venue.
Reviewer: Sammi O’Neill
photo credit Prestige Productions
Cast
Band Members / Musicians
Shane Morgan – Narrator
Oliver Cave – Vocalist
Peet Jackson – Multi Instrumentalist / Vocals
Molly Farmer – Vocalist
Caitlin Forbes – Fiddle Player Vocalist
Dancers
Georgia Amery
Rachel Adele Bolsworth
Katie Tone
Erin Dallas
Isabelle Hazeldine
Hannah Rose Pendlebury