This musical twist on Sleeping Beauty has been in repose for the past year after its first run was hit by Covid. It rouses now having shed most of its original leads, including Rosalie Craig. Now Lisa Lambe plays the lugubrious Fairy with bedhead who resembles a goblin from European folklore and is this story’s centre.
With an original concept by Katrina Lindsay and Rufus Norris (and directed by the latter while Lindsay designs set and costumes), the show looks over-produced at first and desperate to dazzle us. No effect is spared, from dry ice and aerial work to ostrich feathers. Characters have a touch of pantomime but also music hall, commedia dell’arte and Molière. There is Disney-style bling too, and Paul Anderson’s lighting design, with its earthquake of colour, looks in danger of sparking its own mini energy crisis.
