MADC came up with another quintessential pantomime, harking back to the massive success of their 2010 performance, Scrooge – a Christmas Panto.
It’s Montanaro’s uncanny ability to keep the audience on side, while sending us all up at the same time, that is his unique contribution to Maltese panto
This year’s show was written by Alan Montanaro, and directed by Denise Mulholland with Marco Calleja. Costumes and wigs were impressive, directly referencing the 1939 film but also drawing new inspiration for some of the dame’s zany outfits.
Peter Howitt’s sets incorporated innovative digital components, animating the entire space with a series of modulated light effects and stage-spanning projections.
The script remained largely faithful to Baum’s classic, filtered through the blockbuster movie that placed Judy Garland in her most popular role. Philippa Cassar took on the character of Dorothy Gale, transported via tornado to the enchanted land of Oz. A capable singer with plenty of amiable energy, she provided a point of focus in a huge ensemble cast.
Desperate to return home, Dorothy’s adventures in Oz find her in the strange company of a bumbling Scarecrow (Andy Catania), camp Tin Man (Alex Gatesy Lewis) and Cowardly Lion (Ralph Mangion, whose costume was exceptionally well done). And because any panto is only as good as its villain, Isabel Warrington’s Wicked Witch deserves special mention.
Not only was Warrington the perfect cackling hag on stage, but she also somehow managed to do it with a lot of self-conscious silliness – the perfect balance between terrorising little kids and keeping parents well entertained. The Witch’s henchmen, flightless flying monkeys Chimp and Zee (Chiara Hyzler and Maria Buckle), stole the show whenever Warrington’s back was turned.
Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, was played by a graceful Chantelle Micallef Grimaud. The ditzy Good Witch was a source of humour throughout – although her songs were delivered with less gusto than the rest of the evening’s singers. Endless audio problems only compounded the difficulty.
However, there was plenty of striking vocal talent on stage provided by The Crows – a ‘Mockney’ bunch of feathery fiends played by Mandy Randon, Sean Borg, Luke Saydon and Marta Vella. Saydon began the evening with an amped- up rendition of Kurt Calleja’s 2012 Eurovision entry This is the Night – while Calleja sat in the audience, enjoying every minute of it.
On to the dame, Miss Żufjetta “from Valletta”, was played by Alan Montanaro, whose ease with improvisation always pushes his dame characters over the top. This particular incarnation was just as boisterous and out of control as usual and audiences responded with enthusiasm.
It’s Montanaro’s uncanny ability to keep the audience on side, while sending us all up at the same time, that is his unique contribution to Maltese panto. And that’s one important element in the MADC seasonal show that sets it apart from other performances, where dames may be rambunctious and saucy, but never quite manage the ironic contempt that Montanaro’s leggy ladies serve up, time and again.
This was played to good effect during the bit where a group of kids (selected at random from a teeming horde scrambling at the foot of the stage) compete for prizes. What, in other circumstances might be intolerable cruelty, i.e. an adult man taking the mick out of a young girl’s unfortunate-sounding name, or a little boy’s inability to pronounce certain letters of the alphabet, is suddenly a source of wholesome hilarity. It might not seem that way, reading this, but at the time there was nothing unkind about Montanaro’s over the shoulder, off the cuff comments – just guffaws from the stalls, and giggles from the kids clustered around him.
Montanaro is good because there’s something uncomfortable about him. He isn’t a cosy, cuddly sort of dame, all thumbs and cheek. One sequence in particular, a hysterical montage of famous women (including a few infamous locals) impersonated by Montanaro in a series of outlandish wigs and make-up, drive home the secret to his perennial success as the MADC panto’s diva assoluta – the audience were not simply laughing because he looked silly made up as those women, they were laugh-ing because he had captured something about them.
He plays endless variations on a very familiar kind of no nonsense, ready for a laugh, couldn’t care less what the world thinks, sort of Maltese personality, unencumbered by social responsibil-ity or the weight of others’ expectations.
This show has been touted as Montanaro’s last panto for some years, and at times, the entire panto can feel like a setting for his performance.
Whoever comes along to replace Montanaro will find a big pair of stilettos to fill – and discovering a new dame, similarly capable of bringing audiences and cast members together for an evening of unbridled fun, may be the most exciting thing about next year’s MADC pantomime.