Basildon & Thurrock Nub News Editor Neil Speight reviews 'Sleeping Beauty', which runs at Basildon's Towngate Theatre until Sunday, 4 January. Date and ticket details via this link.

AROUND 550 people went home with smiles and seasonal sentiments stirred by another raucous Basildon Towngate pantomime last night (Friday, 5 December)..

The show ended on a high with delighted children screaming for their heroes and cheers to the rafters of this wonderful 'old style' theatre.

There can be no doubting that Sleeping Beauty will go down as another hugely successful production and I'm sure thousands of people are already looking forward to next year's Aladdin.

But I have to confess that for me there was something of a sense of disappointment. I was almost underwhelmed rather than swept away because I don't think the potential of the theatre, cast and the special effects were fully played out.

I don't really blame the cast – in fact I'd go as far as to say they were highly entertaining but feel the fault lies with the script and lack of direction – particularly in the first half, which for me dragged on without purpose.

It was almost as if writer Paul Hendy and director Dorcas Wood had visited a second-hand sale of panto parts and picked up a few low grade bargains. There was very little originality in the script, and it almost seemed to me as if the principal players were bored by their lines just a few performances into this long run.

To be fair, Ian Hallard (in his sixth season as Dame at the Towngate) did his best – and was at the top of his game when ad-libbing (especially when engaging with the evening's front seat 'victim' Ben and family). I've seen him so much better than in this less than traditional dame role and his usually caustic wit, incisive delivery and inflections didn't come to the fore for me.

And the same might be said of the villain of the evening, Sophie Ladds as the evil Caraboose. In recent shows she's cultivated her character as it's gone along, digging deeper and deeper into her sinful world of immorality. I genuinely thought her evil button was stuck at the halfway mark, stopping her making the most of her character's wickedness.

But you can't fault Ian for not getting stuck headfirst into the slapstick moments – quite literally in the second half where the traditional sing and swing combination routine got very messy and was all the more enjoyable as the participant slipped and slid through it.

One performer who really impressed was Sophia Ragavelous as Fairy Moonbeam.

But that shouldn't be a surprise. Her catalogue of work including Grizabella in Cats, Eponine and Fantine in Les Misérables, Sophie in Mamma and the Narrator in Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat puts her in the ranks of modern West End royalty. My surprise about Sophie is that she really didn't get a blockbusting number – not particularly for the kids – but the mums and dads deserve to see her at her spellbinding best (geddit? Fairy; spellbinding!).

Supporting the principals are three relative newcomers, Michael Ayiotis was Jangles and played it with great enthusiasm. He's not short of comic talent and his tricky double-hander with Ian about musicals was very well handled, showing he's got the required comedic and memory craft in his locker.

The production's title lady is Jazz Cave in her first professional production. It's pleasing to see she is one of several graduates of Corringham's Performer's College. She's a lovely and eye-catching Princess Aurora who I suspect will blossom with experience and shine even brighter on stages she is yet to grace.

Thomas Griffiths is Prince Michael, who eventually wins the day and gets the girl of his dreams after all the trials and tribulations that make up this plot.

And that's where my issues really lie. The plot. It's such a disjointed, non-sequential tale with bits thrown in ad-hoc. Quite where the School of Rock skit fits in Sleeping Beauty is beyond me. Not only did it blow the timeline of the story, it just wasn't very funny and went on long past its sell-by date. If it had one saving grace, it was a short piece of sit-down choreography that was very well done.

In fact, the choreography of Pippa Holiday through the show was one of its real high points.

Every routine was meticulously planned and delivered out by the cast, which includes the hard-working team of Evie Barker, Sophie Cullen, Hollie Duncan, George Kennedy, Charles Potter and Fin Scott – young people starting out in the profession (five of them from Performers).

The choreography of Pippa Holliday was superb throughout.

All put in long and varied shifts as courtiers and ghouls and can be proud of their work.

And, of course, great praise must go to the local youngsters who make up the Emerald and Sapphire teams. They are the cream of local dance and performance schools, and I was struck not just by their professionalism and ability, but simply how well they sang and danced their way through. There was real joy on their faces.

And I must also praise the technical team, though I think they are possibly capable of more. Maybe the budget is restrictive in these difficult times. But the lighting and sound was terrific (well done musical director Matthew Reeve and drummer Jack Summerfield) and the stage-setting fluent and dynamic.

Maybe I've just got picky in my old age, and I recall different days at the Towngate when the emphasis was more on the West End values. I moaned then at Simon Fielding's direction because I felt he turned his back on traditional themes and locality – so perhaps I'm being unfair and want both my cake at the same time as I'm eating it. I'm sure Evolution Productions won't lose any sleep over my critique, particularly as they have so many UK Pantomime awards on their mantlepiece.

And while I can't give away the details because it wouldn't be fair, there are some truly great moments in the show, that really do hit the heights. One will rock you back in your seat. And watch out for the velociraptor, though I don't quite see where 'Dave' fits in. He is impressive though…producing an iconic monster is something the Towngate excels in.

To sum up, the panto is the sum of all its parts, and it brings to Basildon around two hours of joy and make believe. The kids will love it and there's enough for the adults to go home happy too.

It's definitely great value for money.

But for me, though I very much enjoyed the evening and wouldn't have swopped it for the option of sitting home and watching 'I'm a Celebrity' for all the tea in Basildonia, I just went away thinking how the opportunity to go from very good to outstanding was missed.