Let Down Your Hair

Rapornzel

Have you ever heard of a Panto or Pantomime? I’m not talking about a game of charades or a performance by French mime artist Marcel Marceau. A Panto is a very popular English theatrical tradition presented around the holidays. It’s a comedy with music, usually based upon a familiar fairy tale, and the humor is broad and extremely bawdy, especially for the adults. The Panto features cross-dressing: the Panto Dame is typically played by a man in drag and the Principal Boy is portrayed by a young woman in trousers. The show also incorporates plenty of audience participation. We’re often asked to sing along with the cast, and the show features lots of audience participation and call-outs. For example, theatergoers are directed to shout a racy greeting each time a certain characters appear on stage. We’re also instructed to “Boo” the villain whenever he or she shows up. A gay Fairy is greeted with mad cheering and applause and when any of the Good Guys join the story, the audience is commanded to whistle, shout and cheer.

Jay Espano, the talented Artistic Director of PrideArts, and his Guest Director for this production, Claire Hart Proepper, introduce their new holiday show in this way. The theatergoers who filled the opening night audience were obviously familiar with the kind of gay, racy Pantos written by Tom Whalley. Since PrideArts produced their first holiday musical comedy by Mr. Whalley four years ago, it’s now become their annual Christmas tradition. Beginning with JACK OFF THE BEANSTALK, PrideArts has also given us SLEEPING WITH BEAUTY and last year’s holiday extravaganza, THROBBIN WOOD. RAPORNZEL is their latest show. 

This year we enter a fairy tale world originally created by the Brothers Grimm. For anyone unfamiliar with the story, despite it being turned into the popular Disney film, “Tangled,” it’s a classic fairy tale from Germany. In the story, as revenge for stealing greens from her garden, a witch punishes the guilty parents of young Rapunzel by taking their newborn baby. is She locked Rapunzel away in a tower with no doors or stairs, and the young girl thinks of the witch as her mother. Every day she visits Rapunzel by climbing up her long, golden hair to the turret window. She’d stand below and call, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,”and voila! Up the witch would scramble. But complications arise when a handsome prince discovers Rapunzel in the tower and begins wooing her.

In Tom Whalley’s latest Panto, the pretty, young girl in the tower is renamed RaPORNzel. Get it? And her long hair isn’t growing from her head—can guess where her braided tresses originate? That’s right! And besides the titillating titular character, portrayed in fine voice by a young Cyndi Lauper look-alike named Hannah Efsits, the Panto also stars Dame Fancy Follicle, the head hairdresser at the Curl Up and Dye Salon. She’s played with playful panache by the bawdy Peter Moeller. Her dimwitted lazy son, Pascal the Rascal, is portrayed with goofy charm by Charlotte Harris. A crowd-pleasing pixie named Hairy Fairy Dandruff pops in and out of the story. Played with relish by Jeremy Cox, they serve as the Narrator as well as everyone’s funny fairy friend. Our hairy heroine’s father, King Merkin, is played by Dave Kelch. There are two additional actors in this cast who truly stand out. They dazzle with their strong comedic abilities and fine vocal talents. Mother Fucker, the evil Witch, is portrayed with scenery-chewing snap by beautiful Gina Cioffi; and her adversary, the dashing Prince Ride-Her, is played with sexy style by handsome Bryan Fowler.

Director Claire Hart Proepper keeps the play in constant motion, not only utilizing the entire stage, but also staging her actors on a runway that leads out into the middle of the audience. In doing this, she’s able to bring much of the action right into the lap of theatergoers. Jonathan Berg-Einhorn’s colorful and sexually suggestive storybook Scenic Design works well by hiding various new scenes behind the pages of a giant storybook. Shawn Quinlan’s glitzy, colorful and risque costumes are inventive and inspired, and the show’s musical choices are enjoyable blasts from the past.

The obvious warning that this is definitely not a Panto for youngsters. Tom Whalley’s ribald plays are aimed at LGBTQ+ adult-only audiences. The show, which is a little long but quite entertaining, overflows with Dad Jokes, four-letter words and lots of smutty, suggestive plot elements and erotic dialogue. But if you’re looking to spice up your holidays a little, head to PrideArts’ latest Panto, get ready to Let Down Your Hair.           

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented November 24-December 14 by PrideArts at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, Chicago.

Tickets are available at the door or by going to www.pridarts.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.