Santa, snow, sequins, silly jokes, and songs you can hum along to – the Sound Ideas’ Christmas show has everything you could want from a traditional festive celebration.
There are some modern interventions – a Mean Girls inspired drag routine and Adam Ireson channelling The Nightmare Before Christmas‘ Boogie Man – but at its heart this is a familiar song and dance show that celebrates the Christmas season with an abundance of sparkle and good cheer.
The staging for the opening number struggles a little with the constrained Maddermarket Theatre stage, but after that the numbers pare down to more modest routines and, so long as you’re charged with a little festive spirit, you can just settle back in your chair and let the joy wash over you.
Highlights include Sara Crowley’s stark but strong performance of A Spaceman Came Travelling, and Emily Sidnell’s evocative rendition of Christmas Comes To Town.
Holly Graham, Chris Brown, and Nic Gordon – together with several other cast members – have fun with an oft interrupted version of All I Want For Christmas Is You, although the funniest moments come from the youngest cast members Archie Woodward and Freya Prigmore as they cross-question Santa’s (‘represented’ by Mark Wells).
The show features the high production values we’ve come to expect from Sound Ideas, with smart costumes and video projections, making it easy to forget that most of the performers have very different day jobs.
It’s a feelgood festive show that is a charming start to the Christmas season.
- A Sound Ideas Christmas Spectacular continues at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich until December 10. Sound Ideas returns to the Maddermarket with pantomime Cinderella from December 15 to 31.
