This year’s pantomime from Theatre Royal Stratford East SINBAD THE SAILOR offers quite an altered version of a well-known Middle Eastern tale. But whilst the plot changes offer a new perspective on the story and the performances are of a top quality, SINBAD THE SAILOR doesn’t carry the spirit of a great panto and instead gets muddled in its lack of a clear message and directions.Sinbad (Julian Capolei) must take on the challenge of finding a chest of treasure in order to marry the Sultan’s daughter however the villainous Prince Naw-Ze Uzz is determined to stop him and take over the kingdom for himself. Various other characters pop in and out of this production, most of them serving no purpose and at times it feels like they are there to just sing a song and then vanish.
There are great performances from many of the cast members. Michael Bertenshaw is a delightful baddie that abandons his posh accent every time he addresses the audience and on one occasion decides to coach members of the public on Received Pronunciation. Rina Fatania is fabulous as the severely depressed Geenie and Julian Capolei’s Sindbad is a sincere and likeable character that wins the audience every time he enters the stage. There is not much to be said about the music side of things as most of the songs are not very memorable however Johnny Amobi’s voice is indeed incredible and it’s a terrible pity that his character, The Dame of SINBAD THE SAILOR is full of cringe-worthy jokes as Amobi’s talent is clearly wasted.
Kerry Michael the director of SINBAD THE SAILOR seems to have gone for the idea that bigger is better. At the beginning of the piece we are told very quickly that it is Sindbad’s sister – Sindbada, that loves to adventure and he is only responsible for writing her stories and taking credit for them. Sindbada doesn’t seem to have a problem with this and stays pretty nonverbal until the end of the piece when she and the Princess sing a song about girl power. I guess Michael was hoping to convey a last minute feminist message that sadly fails.
Unfortunately this panto is not of the quality you would expect from a venue like Theatre Royal Stratford East.
As I got up from my seat at the interval the word I kept hearing around me as the audience filed out to the bar was "lovely" and that one word summation is a pretty good description of the Menier Chocolate Factory's Christmas Show.