'This performance contains strobe lighting' says my ticket. What!? Strobe lighting in The Snowman. How can this production possibly live up to the hype? To the song? To the Christmas cheer it embodies? The music is how. It's impossible to overestimate the atmosphere that's created as soon as the music starts. You don't get the full blown Walking in the Air magic until just before the interval but the excerpts and the orchestral drama leads you through a nostalgic, enchanting adventure that starts by placing you right in the middle of a snow globe.
It's true, I'm staring at the inside of a snow globe. A little house with warm, welcoming lights and a big red arm chair wait invitingly under continuous, delicate snowfall. Or so the ingenious lighting would have you believe. It's been a year since I saw the cartoon and I only really remember the flying and the song and I don't want to even think about the ending let alone see it live on stage. But here I am, a little early, watching a few sneaky kids check out the hidden live orchestra at the front of the stage. For those who winter abroad or under rocks, The Snowman is the story of a boy and his adventures with his dormant icy creation that magically comes to life on Christmas Eve.
Bill Alexander's production is a combination of silent comedy and ballet. The humour is unexpected, the grace is not. Snowman, a tad unsettling when he first comes to life, quickly becomes the adorable, naïve and excited newcomer to the boy's world. He puts on make-up, makes peace with the cat and plays limbo with the exotic fruit in the fringe. I was particularly impressed with the coconut. It's continuously funny, the audience remains grinning throughout and now and again we're thrown nuggets of laugh-out-loud dramatics. Staying true to the original comic and the television adaptaion, it's all about the physical comedy. The silent characters are hilariously inquisitive and embrace awkward dancing when Santa tries to show them how to boogie. Even the graceful Ballerina sees the funny side.
The stage has surprising depth to it. The huge winter forest seems to go on forever beyond the set but we're allowed to peek into to a little enclave where the snowmen's party takes place. The boy's house is big and intriguing with an element of The Cat in the Hat eccentricity. In each scene the audience is challenged to notice everything. From the steady snowfall in the background and the clouds clearing at daybreak to the sunlight coming through the tree branches, the attention to detail is captivating and draws us into the action. At one point, the boy throws a snowball past the audience, breaking a window, causing a number of heads to involuntarily turn around to see what happened. That's in addition to the almost overwhelming urge to wave back during the flying scene.
The flying scene is of course, the highlight of the show. It could be, but it's not at all clichéd. They really are walking in the friggin' air, and they get higher and higher and somehow keep going. Well timed, this comes right before the interval and continues after. Impressively, things don't wane. After the interval there are penguins, reindeer, Santa and a multitude of Snowmen. Everyone is completely absorbed: Jack Frost gets boos, Santa gets cheers and Snowman innocently gets it on with Ballerina.
The only slight fault with the production are the longish set changes which distract the children slightly, but they were easily drawn back into the story as soon as the lights came up. Kids usually overlook the details but strobes aside, the lighting is distinctively impressive and there were numerous cries of “Mummy! Lights!” Credit goes to the blundering Snowman at the beginning who transforms into the graceful ballet dancer by the end and the ever creepy Jack Frost. The Peacock Theatre is a perfect fit for this production and the music is spellbinding. The Snowman hype tends to be ubiquitous in theatre land at this time of year, but it's well deserved.
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