Theater Review: Playful panto at the Playhouse

Take a familiar, happily-ever-after fairy tale, throw in slapstick, topical humor, pop songs, ample buffoonery, audience participation throughout and a guy in a dress and you’ve got “Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight,” a dandy British-style panto for the whole family at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Panto, a British winter-holiday tradition with roots in 16th-century commedia dell’arte, invites audience interaction to the max through villain-heckling, cheers, clapping, singalongs and coached comments in unison (“Oh, no he didn’t, oh, yes he did”). The more audience participation, the more fun the show.

Celebrity casting is another panto element and here Disney recording artist Olivia Holt and Garrett Clayton (Disney’s “Teen Beach Movie”) play lovely young Princess Aurora and the handsome Prince, respectively, while Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Spartacus”) has an absolute blast as slinky evil fairy Carabosse and Tamyra Gray, “American Idol” finalist-turned-actor, is a golden-voiced Good Fairy.

They are joined by highly enjoyable show-biz stalwarts — musical stage pros David Engel in the gender-bending “Dame” role of Nanny Tickle and Patrick Cassidy as Aurora’s father, the King of Pasadena; and TV veteran Ben Giroux, who plays Silly Billy, Aurora’s smitten bodyguard and Nanny Tickle’s sidekick.

Professional dancers and two alternating teams of local child and teen performers round out the cast.
Aurora is about to turn 18, and if she hasn’t pricked her finger with a spindle by then, she will be free of Carabosse’s curse that will otherwise send her to sleep for 100 years. Her 18th birthday party will also be an engagement party: Her father has betrothed her to the Prince of Alhambra (Clayton, a humorous mix of self-infatuation and earnestness).

Unfortunately, the Prince, not the sharpest tool in the shed, is waylaid in the forest by disguised Carabosse, who tricks him into taking a “present from the people of Burbank” to Aurora, the present being, of course, a spinning wheel.

Will Silly Billy, in “Turkey Boy” superhero guise, be able to help Nanny Tickle and the Good Fairy rescue the Prince from Carabosse’s clutches in time for him to awaken Aurora with true love’s kiss? You can bet on it.

Directed by Bonnie Lythgoe (“So You Think You Can Dance” judge) and written by Kris Lythgoe, this festive frolic marks the third outing at the Playhouse for Lythgoe Family Productions, which previously gave the panto treatment to “Snow White” and “Aladdin” and has clearly found a home at the historic Pasadena venue. Presented with plenty of color, fairy tale sparkle and silliness to please young attendees, the show comes, too, with a nudge and a wink for adults, thanks to mild naughtiness and numerous pop-culture references aimed to fly over children’s heads. (TMZ and dating site Tinder get a mention and “Game of Thrones” comes up more than once.)

The gags, true to panto tradition, are deliberate groaners. Cassidy’s King wants to be sure that no one in the audience misses his dance steps (“Can you see me from the back?”) Nanny Tickle: “I used to have an hourglass figure, but the sand shifted.” Silly Billy’s sister, he observes, is “addicted to the hokey pokey, but she’s turned herself around.” The best visual joke of the show, which won’t be revealed here, comes when irate Carabosse blasts Nanny Tickle with her magic wand.

Engel is a downright hoot as Nanny Tickle, mining laughs with every sideways glance and bosom adjustment. Her “Mary Poppins” take-off, as she and Billy say a temporary farewell to the Kingdom of Pasadena, is a kick — and the character’s use of the lyrics to “Moon River” is a giggle.

Giroux, a deft physical comic, has some admirably quick-witted moments, too, when bantering with lucky young “golden ticket” holders in the audience who are asked onstage at one point during the show.

All the silliness provides a framework for mighty fine singing from the actors who deliver a mishmash of pop songs worked into the action, led by musical director Michael Orland. As Carabosse, Lawless’ theme song is the Blondie classic, “One Way or Another” (“I’m gonna getcha, getcha, getcha”) and she belts it out with relish. American Authors’ “Best Day of My Life,” Irving Berlin’s “What’ll I Do,” Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” Bruno Mars’ “Marry You,” Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” — and somewhat incongruously, “O Holy Night” — are among many other selections, although the electronics-driven “Party Rock Anthem” that opened a recent performance was an ear-piercing misstep. Sound levels, thankfully, were soon corrected.

Choreographer Spencer Liff, an Emmy nominee for his work on “So You Think You Can Dance,” created the sprightly dance numbers, performed by the pro and youth casts. The lavish set design, credited to Ian Wilson, gives the show the look of a pop-up fairy tale book; Steven Cahill is the show’s sound designer and Chris Wilcox created the all-important lighting design (Carabosse has her own special shade of poisonous green).

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What: “Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight”

Where: Pasadena Playhouse. 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; noon, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Sat., noon and 4 p.m. Sun. Special matinees: 4 p.m. Dec. 24, 26, 30. Also 7:30 p.m. Dec. 29. Dark Dec. 25, 31, Jan. 1, 2. Ends Jan. 4

Admission: $39 to $75. “Golden Tickets” (offering an onstage experience for children only) are an additional $50

More info: (626) 356-7529, www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org
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LYNNE HEFFLEY writes about theater and culture for Marquee.