The Scouse Red Riding Hood, written by Kevin Fearon and directed by Mark Chatterton, with musical direction from Howard Gray, the creative team that engineered successful previous Royal Court Christmas shows, such as The Scouse Cinderella, The Scouse Snow White and The Scouse Jack & The Beanstalk is the theatre’s re-telling of children’s fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood with a twist.
This adult panto contains an abundance of Liverpool-style innuendo and near-the-knuckle jokes plus a lot of swearing, so not suitable for youngsters. The storyline is funnily sharp-witted and works perfectly providing laughs galore including lots of home-grown Liverpool colloquialisms, Red-versus-Blue footie jokes and the cast naming local Merseyside landmarks. It’s difficult to provide too many details without giving away a lot of the hilarious elements of the show which would spoil it for those wishing to attend but it is excellent madcap chaos at its best with lots of crowd-pleasing cringey puns.
The show opens with the cast performing “Can You Feel It” followed by Grandma (Lindzi Germain) warming up the audience with jokes and suggestive innuendo. Germain is made for panto with her wonderful facial expressions, unfazed attitude and expansive voice. Veteran performer, Andrew Schofield performs excellently as part of double act Property Developers, Cash & Carry, with side-kick Keddy Sutton performing superbly as Sue whilst also taking on various other personas brilliantly. They are the dastardly duo trying to evict Grandma from her home, the cottage in the woods in Lidlpool. These two bounce off each other with clever one-liners and expert portrayals of various characters throughout the show.
Red (Lydia Rosa Morales-Scully), Blue (Adam McCoy), Bob the Builder (Liam Tobin) and Stage Manager (Chantalle Cole) complete the troop of elite performers who work together effortlessly as a team and perform excellently individually helping to make this performance an unrivalled success. All cast members are equally talented in their roles and fulfil them with the highest credibility along with exceptional assurance. Chantalle Cole received rapturous applause for her outstanding rendition of “One Moment in Time” which was performed beautifully.
There were numerous well-known songs included with re-arranged lyrics, such as “Stuck in the Lidl With You” with music provided by talented resident theatre band members, Ben Gladwin, Jack Hymers, Greg Joy, Chris Nicholls and Mike Woodvine who were on stage throughout the performance along with talented vocalist, Emma-Grace Arands.
The revolving stage was made full use of; this enabled three or more scene changes to be swivelled on the turntable, settings depicting inside and outside of Grandma’s cottage, the rocket launch pad and the moon landing which were rotated before the audience thus avoiding awkward furniture shifting during the performance.
Explosive sound effects and the use of smoke machines provided the necessary atmosphere along with clever lighting using spotlights and numerous light bulbs erected on stage set scenery such as on the Christmas trees.
The show is fast and funny with lots of giggles and a clever script.
The show runs until 25th January 2025. https://liverpoolsroyalcourt.com/
Age advisory 16+ strong language throughout. Children under 12 are not allowed into the show.
Reviewer: Anne Pritchard
Reviewed: 15th November 2024
North West End UK Rating: