Sleeping with Beauty

PrideArts is opening the holiday season with a queer pantomime by Tom Whalley, who wrote last year’s pantomime production, Jack Off the Beanstalk. For those unfamiliar with pantomime, it’s a very British form of theater, ordinarily aimed at children, full of songs and stock characters and a lot of audience participation in the form of call and response to the actors. PrideArts reimagines the format, and the story of Sleeping Beauty, for decidedly adult audiences.

In the plus column, the cast is talented and certainly game. Neill Kelly as the Queen Clitoris and Korinne Yonan as the evil Malefic*nt were highlights for me, both commanding the stage and nailing the balance of being fully committed but still slightly self-aware of the absurdity of the material. More than anything, they both appeared to be having an absolute ball, and that’s definitely required if you want the audience to have a good time as well. Across the board, the cast was vocally talented as well and several of the dance numbers were a high point of the show for me.

In terms of critiques, I think the show didn’t need its intermission. It’s a short show, just over 90 minutes even with the intermission, and a show that length just doesn’t need a break to me. Also, I think the dirty jokes were a little… much… at points. I’m not a prude or a scold by any means, it’s more that every character being at a 10/10 on the dirty puns the whole time dulls the effect rather than heightens it. A few beats here and there or a character innocently stumbling into the dirty joke rather than winking to the audience when they made it would have given the show a little more texture and allowed for a few more laughs over a knowing eye roll.

Still, I can’t deny the show was fun and I think it could easily be a part of a night out this holiday season. Ultimately, this show is exactly what it says on the label, and whether that sounds like you’ll enjoy that or you won’t, you are almost certainly correct.

Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented November 16-December 17 by PrideArts at the Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the box office or by going to www.pridearts.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.