W.E.A.D.S’s Aladdin – 21 February 2025, Walkley Ebenezer Methodist Church
Review by Claire Taranaski.
This is the second year I have reviewed W.E.A.D.S annual panto, although they have been going much longer celebrating their 40th birthday this year, and like last year they confirmed that we should all be supporting our local community pantos full of unexpected delights and everything we love about the genre. This year they also confirmed it’s not just putting on a show that’s important to them but also their members, ended with their best dance routine of the night to a electro 80s classic that all Sheffield residents will recognise and was a favourite of a young cast member of theirs who tragically died last August and was dedicated to him.
I gave my five year old daughter a late night last night, she was finally asleep by 10.30pm, to join me as she has become my assistant panto reviewer and in her words “thank you for taking me mummy, it’s really good”. Her stand out characters were the two comedy police officers Tai and Chi, played by Keith Nockels and Hazel Bryce, loving their comedy and comedic chemistry (the entire audience loved this too), them venturing into the audience for a truncheon waving routine to “Bad Guys” from Bugsy Malone, and her being concerned when they were shrunk down to the equivalent of little Ant and Dec. My daughter also loved the fluorescent Chinese dragon, which will appeal to any child who has recently been taught about Chinese New Year and came home with sweets and now knowing the dance routine to “big fish, little fish, cardboard box” after going on stage for the sing-a-long (thank you to Becky Mower as Widow Twankey for the reassuring whispers in my daughter’s ears during this part of the show). As grown ups we loved the panto’s dig at other bigger Sheffield pantos for having the same sing-a-long song ever year.
Along with the comedy police officers their are lots of stand out performances in this panto including Jamie Hemsworth as Princess Jasmine, who showed natural stage presence, confidence, personality and attitude and a beautiful singing voice in her performance of “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” and reminded me of a young Sarah Solemani. Becky Mower as Widow Twankey continues to prove that women make some of the best dames, bringing everything you expect from a great panto dame to the stage without going to far into the adult humour that some other panto dames seem to be-becoming more and more reliant on. Joe Hinshelwood as Wishee Washee is prefect comedy gold opposite her, whilst possessing a chilled youthful approach to comedy and their situation. Another stand out performance was from Max Hemsworth as the Genie (we had to check the programme to see if him and Joe were twins) who brought a similar approach to the role whilst offering insight into the life of a Genie when not wishes granting and giving me vibes of The Inbetweeners Neil. All of these four would not be out of place in a more major panto so it’s great to see them perform in the heart of the community.
Other cast members who deserve a mention our Amelia Henshaw in the title role of Aladdin who is likeable, gets the audience on their side, has natural chemistry with the other characters and who pulled off a lovely rendition of “She’s The One”; Darryl Lomas as Abanazer (aka Ebenezer, aka Alabama, aka Ava Banana) who was everything you want from a panto baddie with hints of a 1970s comedian; and Lyla Fillingham as the Spirit of the Ring, who had considerable stage confidence for a performer so young and inspired every child in the audience to do panto. I must also mention our favourite prop of the show “Wishee’s Whatsit” and we hope it has to survived for the remaining performances.
If you have no plans for today I would recommend heading over to Walkley to support this lovely family friendly community panto, which as one of my work colleagues pointed out might be the fourth time the company has performed Aladdin in their history but we expect will also be there best so far.