REVIEW: Christmas Spectacular, Regent Centre, Christchurch
A Christmas show involving mild peril is only as good as its villain and, thankfully for this season’s panto-esque Christmas Spectacular, Mark Everitt as Jack F. Rost is sensational.
Everitt’s huge, foreboding presence elicited a chorus of boos from the audience, but he also brought the house down in his musical numbers, with a booming voice and crackling evil laugh.
Jack is hell-bent on destroying Santa’s plans, and charms his way (poorly disguised to all but the North Pole’s finest, naturally) into the big man’s inner sanctum of festive chums as the new toy designer.
The story unravels in vintage and contemporary song-and-dance numbers guaranteed to drag the Yuletide cheer from the hearts of the stoniest of Scrooges, as elves Pippins and Squash reel out their ‘finest’ Christmas cracker gags and love blossoms, falls apart and blossoms again in the most traditional of fashions.
Christmas Spectacular will return for the 2018 season. This, the 6th production, was the best attended ever with 4,327 patrons over 13 shows.
Lyndon Hogg
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