This Christmas, the Hertford Theatre panto will take you on a journey through the cold, along the Icicle Path to find The Snow Queen! Enjoy a fairytale adventure with West End sparkle, shining performances, live music and even some snow! Hertford Theatre’s, The Snow Queen, is another diamond, so make sure you get your tickets.
Once again the team in Hertford have created a musical masterpiece. At the Hertford Theatre you get something a bit different to a traditional panto, it’s a musical extravaganza where you’ll still find plenty of opportunities to join in (oh yes you will…), there’s audience participation, a sprinkling of icing and you might even learn the ancient reindeer martial art of Kung Poo. I was invited to see the show and I’m taking the family nearer to Christmas. It’s our fourth Hertford Theatre panto and every year it has me coming back for more!
The Snow Queen rules the frozen North and when her enchanted mirror shatters, tiny fragments splinter off to every corner of the world. The Magnificent Magpies do everything they can to search for shiny things in the hope of recovering all the sinister pieces. Despite the magpie’s efforts a tiny shard from the mirror falls into a little boy’s eye when he is playing in the snow with his friend Gerda. This little boy, Kingsley, starts to feel cold and is lured away by the Snow Queen to a place where he won’t feel cold anymore… where he won’t feel anything.
Gerda is a strong and brave young girl and she sets out to find her friend on a fairytale quest where she meets a Gingerbread Witch from Hansel & Gretel, Briar Rose from Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood’s Wolf that’s born to be wild! She doesn’t give up, she won’t be delayed by Jack Frost and love for her friend gives her strength to persevere… but will she be too late… will her friend be frozen forever?
As Gerda’s adventure unfolds the music keeps coming. Listen out for local boy George Ezra’s Shotgun as well as Take That’s Shine and even Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. There’s also Hertford Theatre Panto twists on vintage favourites like Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild, The Monkees’ I’m A Believer and ELO’s Mr Blue Sky. I loved the clever adaptation of Little Girls from the musical Annie and the uplifting You Can’t Stop The Beat from Hairspray. The Snow Queen’s (played by Anya Hamilton) performance of Defying Gravity from Wicked and Queen’s The Show Must Go On gave me goosebumps and Kingsley’s (played by Josh Dorn) solo performance of Say Something I’m Giving Up On You is emotive and beautiful.
Let the Hertford Theatre Panto melt your heart and get your party started, there are still some tickets for The Snow Queen left, but you need to get them quick!
The Snow Queen runs until Wednesday 1st January 2020, for more information or to book tickets visit hertfordtheatre.com.
Disclosure: I was provided with a complimentary ticket to the show. The words and opinions are all my own. All photographic images courtesy of James Leask Fraser at area1photography.com
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