The Stage, Thursday 4 January 2001
Directed by Jon Conay for the Grand Theatre, this is a wonderful child-orientated production, with brief audience sing-songs and short bite-sized sketches. Lisa Riley, in the part of Fairy of the Bowbells, appears very much as herself - loud and bumptious. The story line also manages to include a shipwreck, a haunted house, palaces and a multitude of other scenes.
The slapsitck fun provided by father and son duo Clive Webb as Captian Fitzwarren and Danny Adams as Mate Danny brings the house to a standing ovation. They are particularly popular with the younger members of the audience.
Jimmy Cricket's natural skills as a performer and comedian are under-used. His rapport with the audience and easy manner are very disarming and he proves to be a hit with the youngsters. Lizzie Wiggins as the Sultana holds her own, her larger than life personality is well in tune with the Wolverhampton audience.
The dancers, choreographed by Sam Spencer Lane, are polished and full of smiles, as are the young performers from the Classic Academy of Dance. My last comment must be for Richard Swerrun, who makes Dick into the most accomplished dancer and singer I have ever seen.
By Peta David
Express & Star,Tuesday 19 December 2000
Panto that's truly grand - oh, yes it is!
By David Hotchkiss
There could have been no better way to end the exhilarating day on which Wolverhampton won it's city status than to share in this stunning family show. In this magical production, the stage is awash with energy from beginnig to end and the large cast is brimming with talent.
In fact, there's only one thing missing from this panto - all those boring bits that made you suddenly need to go to the loo as a kid. Here, the emphasis is on action and comedy, and last night's children roared their approval and joined in whever they could.
Former Emmerdale girl Lisa Riley heads the cast and makes the most natural and charming fairy you could imagine. Meanwhile her ex co-star Paul Loughran (formerly Butch Dingle) is great as the mean King Rat. And there's more. Jimmy Cricket, as Idle Jack, brilliantly brings new life to lots of well-tried gags and Richard Swerrun, as Dick, shows off a talent for comedy as well as his expected highly-polished singing voice.
Bobby Bennett is a classic dame as Sarah The Cook and Shobna Gulati (from Dinner ladies) is sweet and sassy as the Sultana's Daughter. Back Country lass Lizzie Wiggins is hilarious as the Sultana with the Gornal accent.
The scene stealers, though, are Clive Webb and Danny Adams as Fitzwarren and his mate. Thier breathless antics - especially Danny' athletic turns and old fashioned daftness - won special applause at every appearance, and quite right too.
They were joined by Lisa Riley and Bobby Bennett for a slendidly silly version of The 12 Days of Chritsmas that must have left all of them totally exhusted.
Dec 20 2000, Birmingham Post
Dick is Truly Fab
By Richard Edmonds
With its dames, comic humour, gags and principal boy, Dick Whittington is probably the only true panto in the Midlands this Christmas.
And no panto worth its salt is anything without a bright, bustling dame. In Bobby Bennett (pictured with Jimmy Cricket), the noble tradition of the great dames of the past - I'm thinking of George Lacey, Sean Glenville and probably Dan Leno - is revived.
Mr Bennett is Sarah the Cook and when he's around, the show is in good hands. With Idle Jack (the superb Jimmy Cricket with an inimitable line in zany patter) Mr Bennett bats dumplings around the theatre in the kitchen scene and he has the immediate sense of fun of a Bamforth comic postcard.
Lisa Riley is the amply proportioned Fairy Bowbelles, who by no means restricts her space to fairyland.
This fairy actually joins in the fun with the mortals whenever possible, turning up at one point in glitter smock, pants and baseball cap to help along the crazy version of A Partridge in a Pear Tree which, aided and abetted by those two inspired lunatics Clive Webb and Danny Adams, brought the house down.
I've always admired Messrs Adams (the young one) and Webb and my admiration was not diminished this year, even though I was on the receiving end of half a bucket of cold water which, I guess, shows you in no uncertain terms what comics think of reviewers (only joking boys).
But a good panto needs smart costumes that leave you saying "oo-er" and viable sets. And both these things are here to delight the audience.
Again, we must have a strong Dick Whittington and a loveable cat, and so you need look no further than Richard Swerrun, obviously Lord Mayor of London material, and Craig Turner his endearing moggie.
There is no smutty dialogue, which is a relief all round, although the sound levels are dangerously high for sensitive young ears (not to mention mine).
Jon Conway directs this highly successful panto and he is also responsible for the direction of the lustreless Peter Pan in Birmingham.
The difference is chalk and cheese. But that's theatre for you.
Cast includes Lisa Riley (Emmerdale's Mandy Dingle/ You've Been Framed) as Fairy Bowbells, Shobna Gulati (From BBC TV's Dinnerladies) as the Sultana's daughter, Richard Swerrun (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) as Dick, Paul Loughran (Emmerdale's Butch Dingle) as King Rat and comedian Jimmy Cricket as Idle Jack.
