There's so much goodwill going for the Cromer Seaside Special that it's about time a Christmas version was staged in this comfortable theatre.
In many ways it shares the summer show's style. It'sÌýbright and lively with lots of singing, dancing, comedy and high production values in the costume and set departments. But the comparison ends there. Openwide, the show's producer which runs the pier for North Norfolk District Council, has set out to make this distinctively different with a Christmas feel achieved by a different director and choreographer: Julian Ochrya and Lainie Baird. It takes a Christmas theme and the aim is to create an old-fashioned round-the-fireside feel. Comic gifts The show opens with the cast singing carols and Santa Claus sneaking on stage to put presents under the tree. Each gift is used by comedian and compere Tim Pope to lead us into the next sequence and it works pretty well.Ìý The summer show's hallmark is the big production numbers, usually based on musicals, so we don't get too much of this type of number. InsteadÌýthere's a quartet of singers. Eddie Dredge is rather good, so too is local boy Eddie Bushell, Lainie Baird and Nicola Thomas. They were particularly effective combining on Robbie Williams' Angels and Sir Cliff's Mistletoe And Wine.Ìý There are four dancers plus the welcome addition of some older members of Carole Tims' Broadland Youth Choir as well as children from the local Dance Exchange. The slight problem is for no doubt legal and bedtime reasons, they only appear in the first half so you notice their absence in the second. Christmas Crooners There’s a lovely sequence called Christmas Crooners, which starts off with Lainie as a very passable Judy Garland, which then goes into plenty more Christmas songs. Cromer doesn’t go for big name stars - it's not their style. So we have Dick Van Winkle, who’s a talented multi-instrumentalist. He’s funny, joining in with the sketches and routines, but he can also play beautifully,Ìýparticularly Acker Bilk numbers.Ìý Tim Pope is the comedian. The show has a pantomime element so he keeps coming on in different costumes to link it together and there’s a sing-song before the finale. It’s never easy being a first-time comic at Cromer since you can’t take this audience for granted and you have to work hard - a bit like doing a working men’s club in Wigan on a wet Monday.
 | | Tim Pope kept the jokes flowing |
Tim Pope was getting the measure of the audience on the openingÌý night. He made me laugh, but I sensed he wasn’t finding it easy and he wasn’t helped by a temperamental microphone. But he will win through as they usually do. He’s does some brilliant impersonations and, I may be showing my age, but I loved his Max Miller.Ìý Wintry weather The weather brought out the best in him. This is the big gamble about putting on a pier show in the middle of winter. And let’s not forget this is a proper pier stretching out into the bleak North Sea, which on the opening night saw massive waves pounding in.Ìý There are lots of moments when this show really rocks - at the opening, so did the theatre! It shuddered like a minor earthquake zone. And then during the interval there was some heavy rain and hail which resulted in some leaks in the roof over row B. It wasn’t so much a case of, 'I’m dreaming of a white Christmas' as 'Raindrops keep falling on my head.' One member of the audience even put up her umbrella! This aqua show didn’t last for long but it saw Tim Pope getting plenty of laughs. In the finale, snow fell on the same members of the audience, however, this was artificially created and intended! Over long In all honesty, the show at three hours is too long. The opening sequence of carols seemed to go on and I’m not sure about the pantomime sing-along at the end.Ìý They also did Victoria Wood’s famous song Let's Do It which needs better microphones and diction than they gave it. But for all that, it's great to have a Christmas show at Cromer, especially for those who get withdrawal symptoms!Ìý This show is bound to succeed. Let’s not forget the summer show didn’t come fully formed and perfect, it took time to develop into today's hit formula, so let’s give its new companion time to settle in. The show has already recovered its costs in advance bookings so that bodes well. The hope is, like Great Yarmouth's Hippodrome Circus, the pier’s Christmas show will become as standard a fixture as the summer version. Cromer's Christmas Special runs until 6 January 2006. Call the box office for tickets on 01263 512495. | 
