Handsworth & Hallam Theatre Company’s Rapunzel – 28 January 2026, Montgomery Theatre
Review by Jacob Bush.
Handsworth and Hallam Theatre Company (HHTC) are back at the Montgomery with their annual late-January family pantomime. Packed full of colourful costumes, upbeat musical numbers, over the top characters and plenty of laughs, this is the perfect post-Christmas treat for all ages.
As usual, this pantomime is written Tom Whalley who is a beloved panto comic in the North East. His script has some great jokes, is packed full of local references (perhaps some additional material should be credited to the HHTC production team?) and has a good mix of fresh routines and the old faithfuls. Rapunzel isn’t a particularly common title, although it has been growing in popularity since the success of Disney’s Tangled. You can certainly see the Disney influence in this script, but Whalley ensures the script is grounded in pantomime tradition and that our dame and comic have plenty to do.
Directing the production is Matthew Walker as ever. Walker clearly loves and fully understands pantomime and leads his cast in finding their characterisation well. He makes sure the show moves at a great pace, even when it feels like everything is falling apart – how much of this is scripted and how much is genuinely going wrong we’ll never know, but that’s the art of great pantomime.
The choreography from Hayley Wilbourne and Beth Cooke is lively, integrating all ages seamlessly. It does seem that they don’t have enough playing space for the large ensemble though, probably due to the large tower that can’t be moved into the wings. The band under the direction of Steve Trotter are full of energy and he ensures the cast’s vocals are crisp and clear. Most of the songs are musical theatre numbers – and quite obscure ones at that – so it would have been good to have more variety and a few more songs that the kids would know.
HHTC’s Rapunzel boats a tremendous cast all round. Sara Ross is a lovely Rapunzel – a princess that all the girls will fall in love with. She gets limited stage time until we get to the second act but she makes the most of what she does get. Sam Widdowson is very funny as Prince Ryder – definitely not your typical panto prince. He blows the roof off with some wonderful vocals and works brilliantly with his comedic counterparts. However, Widdowson and Ross get minimal stage time together so we never really buy the romance.
Lou Loftus is delightful as Fairy Dandruff, full of energy and drawing the audience into her storytelling. She is the perfect foil to Sarah Buckley’s Mother Gothel. Buckley is a villain that the audience loves to boo, despite their being very few kids in the audience. She leads musical numbers with confidence and is clearly having a great time on stage. She just needs to give the audience time to boo her on each entrance before carrying on as we miss quite a few lines due to being drowned out by the boos.
The show, as always, really belongs to Matthew Walker and Joseph Walker as Dame Fanny Follicle and Pascal (this year…). Joseph Walker is wonderful as the audience’s best friend. He lands punchlines well and brings a huge amount of energy to the stage. He also leads musical numbers well with strong singing and dancing ability which can be rare to see from a panto comic. Matthew Walker is an outstanding pantomime dame. He is up there with the greats, getting laughs purely from facial expressions and boasting an array of outlandish costumes. It’s almost a surprise a professional pantomime producer hasn’t snapped him up yet.
Rapunzel is a great night out for all ages. You are guaranteed to laugh lots and leave with a big smile on your face. HHTC’s annual pantomime is of a consistently high quality every year and must be one of the best amateur pantomimes in the city, if not the country.
