The Show

Behind the Scenes

A Fairytale Ending – Written by Mike Benyon for the show.

Our Finale to Act 1

Sad to say. Much Hadham is always a pleasure to do and brings joy to those who absolutely love watching it, I always enjoyed it all those years ago when SMP first started going there. The people are so welcoming and generous, laying on food and refreshments for us.

This is the last blog!!! “Oh no it’s not” ” oh yes it is” !!! Boo, and what a wonderful experience it has been from start to finish. All the hard work paid off, thanks to all the production team. Michael’s vision, Jo’s slick and imaginative dance moves, Mike’s talent as an MD, Fay and co’s hard task at costumes, the wonderful lighting, the fantastic set, all the stage crew and not forgetting the writer of such a great panto Warren McWilliams.

The show’s been a great success, over 1300 people were entertained, we added an extra performance, our 11am matinee, which we’ll look to repeat next year tailored to our younger audience, we did 3 shows in one day for the first time, saw new members joining, old ones returning, a debut for a script, director, and an original song all from SMP and had a blast while doing it. Thank you for all your support and for reading this blog, without you we wouldn’t be able to do what we enjoy doing so much.

The blog will be back for our next show! If you want to be part of  Spamalot, then it’s not too late to join. Auditions are this Sunday. If you’re interested then get in touch and we can help you out with what you need. There are more details about the show here: https://www.wordpress.smptheatre.co.uk/spamalot-introduction-auditions/

The cast have had a ball singing and dancing our hearts out, getting the audience cheering, booing and tapping their feet. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with comments like “best show ever”, “worthy of the west end”, “colourful and exciting”.

The costumes, lighting, set and props were expertly resourced and pulled together to make a truly fabulous show. Hearing the children clap and cheer and see their faces light up as their favourite characters appear on stage makes your heart swell.

I have had the privilege to play a number of roles in SMP’s shows and plays since I joined 10 years ago but this has been my favourite – I am living the dream of glitter, sequins and ballet shoes. Sadly though the final curtain call has happened and although we all stole many extra bows we have had to pack up and put the magic away until next time.

Saturday was a big day with 3 shows back to back as we added an 11am performance, the audiences for all the shows were fab and gave us all the energy we needed. We then headed out to our party on Saturday night which was enjoyed by all. We have our special awards ceremony which sees lots of lunging and some dubious prizes awarded then we dance the night away.

The tech team, who have been brilliant all week, have been shifting set pieces, moving lights and dismantling the rigs – a huge job!

Despite 7 shows in a long week spirits are still high during the get out and everyone chips in to do their bit.

We’ve been sweeping dressing rooms (there was a lot of glitter!), folding backdrop clothes and returning props – to Big and Red storage who are great partners to SMP.

Cloth folding takes on a new competitive edge under the guidance of referee Adam Humphreys as these videos show.

Perhaps it’s tiredness or the dust but folding cloths can have rather peculiar effects on people.

Putting on a show takes many people and we are so grateful to all of them for giving up their time and talents to us. It has been a magical week and although I desperately want to keep my costume on it is time to say goodbye.

Community night is always very exciting, as it is our chance to not only meet lots of wonderful people from our local community, but also to perform our show in front of people for the first time. Here was where we got to talk to the children, make the audience laugh, and in my case revel in the boo’s.

The audience joined us on our magical journey, and after the show were wonderful to talk to, and hear about all their favourite bits. My favourite part is personally the act 1 finale, where I get to be my most evil self and sing an iconic number from the well known Disney version of The Little Mermaid. Can you guess what it is? Well you better book tickets so you can see if you’re right!

The cast and crew really came together for the show, and the excitement throughout was tangible. At the end of the show we had our traditional on stage ‘shell-fie’, which we do every show, and I may have pulled some rather odd faces on porpoise

I’ll leave you all now as I have to wash all the glitter out of my hair (there is a lot of sparkles in this show!). See you at the show!

You can book your tickets here, if you want to come to one of our 2.30pm matinees please book now as tickets are limited for those performances:

For us mermaids, last night was the last chance to test the strength of our glue-gunned, sequinned and sparkly shell bras – and hope none of us mer-sisters experience a ‘Janet Jackson’ style wardrobe malfunction…

It was our final opportunity to ‘drill’ quick changes and perfect our ‘contortion-like’ manoeuvres to successfully remove and replace costuming whilst maintaining hair and make-up perfection!

The Dress Rehearsal was also the last chance to troubleshoot what we could, and be ready to react to any thrown lines, costumes or limbs coming your way… yes, the Intimate Theatre stage IS just that – intimate… and whilst we have had plenty of space in rehearsal, now we feel rather like sardines…

Fortunately, we have had a couple of costume runs before tonight, so any, ahem, kinks should be ironed out by now… and any final adjustments completed.

Costume ‘Scene Recovery plans’ are ready – in case, for whatever reason, said costuming should decide to abandon it’s wearer (this has been hats, wigs, and even skirts in previous shows…!)

You’ll be pleased to hear that the dress run was a great success & seeing the set, costumes, lighting and overall creative vision of our awesome production team finally come to life was absolutely magical!

I can’t believe this is Mike Lacey’s directorial debut! He has produced an absolute corker of a show – packed with musical magic from the awesome Mr Mike Benyon, and spectacular dances from our fabulous fire cracker of a choreographer Jo Bakhurst

Together, they’ve added some serious sass and sparkle to this magical ‘tail’… So, what are you waiting for? Come and join SMP under the sea! Xx

You can book your tickets here, if you want to come to one of our 2.30pm matinees please book now as tickets are limited for those performances:

This is the chance our excellent technical team have to really get their hands on the production. It is the chance to make sure that everything is able to run to our often elaborate plans.

By the time our cast arrived in the evening the Stage Manager Alex, Lighting Designer Matt, Sound Engineer Phil and their teams, have spent the entire day in the theatre perfecting their setup – plotting lights, testing levels, planning set changes and running a lot of cables!

Once all the cast have made it to the theatre, watch out for the roadworks on Green Lanes, we set about running the show, but stopping, starting and occasionally skipping were necessary to allow the crew the opportunity to ensure that everything works once the timings, movements and voices of the cast are factored in.

There were several impressive effects that took a concerted effort from everyone present and made full use of the considerable talents available!

We won’t give anything away, you’ll have to be in the audience to see what takes place – have you booked your seats yet?!

All in all a demanding and intense day, but we still found a chance for a few laughs along the way, and we’re extremely proud of we have all achieved together for this amazing show!

You can book your tickets here, if you want to come to one of our 2.30pm matinees please book now as tickets are limited for those performances:

The very first time running through all the musical numbers with the band is without doubt one of the BEST feelings of show week. The dances come alive, the emotions in each and every song are heightened, it is one of my favourite parts of show week!

It was a long long rehearsal with the band going through all the songs and running the show. Our evil villain showed her softer side too with some appropriately decorated cakes. Though we weren’t sure whether to trust her and eat them or not.

While we’re doing the band call and running the show our tech team were busy at the theatre putting all the set and lighting up.

When we got to the theatre the tech crew were still beavering away making everything on stage look amazing and making everything work as it should do! We are so lucky to have so many pros working on our panto. We finished the day getting onstage and looking as some of the spacing for our the big dance numbers.

Still loads of work to be done before opening night! Can’t wait for tomorrow’s technical rehearsal!

You can book your tickets here, if you want to come to one of our 2.30pm matinees please book now as tickets are limited for those performances:

Wednesday was our first rehearsal in 2 weeks due to Christmas and New years. It was a chance for us to shake off some of the festive cobwebs we had gotten. We ended up running as much of the show as we could within the 2 hours, and in spite of the 2 week break, it all still looked rather good.

Sunday turned out to be a rather long one and saw us rehearsing from 2-8 (or 10-8 in Maestro Mike Benyon’s case). This was something the production team thought had to be done to make up for the rehearsal time we lost during the snowy weather, and I think the entire cast agreed. This was also the last chance for us the dress run the show before show week and the final opportunity for costume extraordinaire Faye to figure out if anything was missing.

All in all it was a very productive week of rehearsals for us and sees us going into our final rehearsal week in good spirits.

This is definitely going to be a show not to miss. And I recommend you get your tickets early to avoid disappointment.

Signing off, Your Prince.

You can book your tickets here:

My name is Lucy and I am playing Mariel – strangely familiar name isn’t it – in SMP’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ this month! (Is it actually this month – eeeek!) I have to say that this role and this show have been an ABSOLUTE dream come true. I grew up watching The Little Mermaid on repeat, and to to this date it is my all time favourite Disney movie.

To be playing such a beloved character amongst an incredible team of cast & crew is an incredible honour, and simply MER-mazing!

This week we had an incredible opportunity and experience representing the Borough of Enfield in the London New Years Day Parade. This was SMP’s second time representing Enfield and my first time taking part.

The theme this year was ‘Circus Showtime’ and we decided (unsurprisingly) to go full throttle with our huge array of freaks and circus weirdo costumes.

We, never being one to miss a promotional opportunity, included a mermaid as the feature on our float of circus freaks, but also had a vast collection of other performers, including a bearded lady, a two-headed man, a fire acrobat and the extremely popular head-in-a-box. The costumes and character ideas were provided by the wonderful Fay, with lots of input and creativity from the performers themselves. If I do say so myself, we looked FIN-TASTIC, with such varied yet distinct-looking characters. Our float looked the part too thanks to the handy work of Matt McManus who’s artistic talent is matched only by his building prowess.

We had a phenomenal time throughout the parade, singing and dancing along to our chosen soundtrack (Madness – what else?), interacting with the audience along the parade route, and were even more chuffed to find out later in the day that we placed 9th in the competition! It really was a fabulous end to the best day, and I hope SMP are able to take part in the LNYDP for many years to come!

Here’s our performance for the judges.

Here’s the whole parade, You can find our performance onward from 02.30.00

https://youtu.be/4TEegLAwAiM?t=9007

Make sure you grab your tickets to come and join us under the sea during ‘The Little Mermaid’ this January – you are NOT going to be disappointed!!

You can book your tickets here:

Hot on the heels of ‘Cinderella’s Song’ from Cinderella,  ‘Girl in Heaven’ from Aladdin, ‘As Magic Comes My Way’ from Sleeping Beauty and ‘Ice’ from Frosted. Benyon’s penned another belter with ‘A Fairytale Ending’ for The Little Mermaid.

And you can hear the song here: https://soundcloud.com/user-913787798/a-fairytale-ending-master 

Music and Lyrics by Mike Benyon

Featuring Lucy Sardinha as The Little Mermaid with Wendy Cooper, Carla Segel, Julie Dowling, Joanna McWilliams, Debbie Wall, Jo Bakhurst & Kate Sanders

Guitar – Tim Hall

In our show, A Fairytale Ending is sung by Mariel, the Little Mermaid as she dreams of what life might be like if she could live with her Prince up on dry land. Those of you who listen closely might notice some references to other Fairytale Princesses, could they make an appearance during the number? The only way to find out is by joining us for the show.

You’ll here this some and a host of brilliant popular songs in our show this year, you can book your tickets here:

Following a snowy weekend off, this week was kicked off at Cannon house with singing recaps under the tutelage of Mike B.

Wednesday saw us all running some of the show ahead of the week’s main event – the first costume run!

Yes the first time we all get to see the colourful menagerie that creative team have put together all at once and it was incredible, with bright mermaids rubbing shoulders with dreadful poor unfortunate souls.

You’ll see a few sneak peeks below but for the reel thing, you’ll just have to come sea us!

Finally, we here at SMP are really getting into the christmassy swing of things and to prove it here’s a picture of our Christmas Petree (complete with cherub on top).

I know that you’re just urchin for show week to arrive (I know I am) so book your plaice in our audience schooner rather than later!!

You can book your tickets here now.

We are one Sunday run through down – and we’ve been preparing this week for our second Sunday run and…DUN DUN DUN…first dress rehearsal! Eeeek!

The week got off to a swimmingly good start with a dance re-cap rehearsal – cleaning up all our numbers and by golly are you in for a treat! Our fabulous choreographer Jo Bakhurst has had us ‘hip to the hoppin’ and attempting subtle lockin’ and it is ‘SHOCKIN-LY’ good! Haha! I’m feeling super pumped about the dance numbers – don’t wanna give too much away but I’m a bit gaga over one number in particular!

Wednesday saw us singing our hearts out with the fabulous Mike Benyon, going through all the songs and nailing our pretty challenging harmonies but when we all come together singing in harmony we are one heck of a force! Talking of forces our fantastic Kate who plays Octavia – is a force to be reckoned with – her stunning powerhouse vocals soared on Wednesday in her fantastic rendition of Unfortunate Souls/Spell on you! This number is guaranteed to impress and one I’m really excited about!

Just to top off our rehearsal we all got a cheeky preview of a juicy medley performed by the hilarious pair Dr Love and Pedro, played by the fabulous Deborah and Francois – these two will have you giddy in your seat with their hilarious duet featuring some of the biggest hits from this year.

With an unexpected blast of snow – which us fish folk aren’t so used to – we sadly had to postpone our Sunday rehearsal however nothing can stand in our way in the week ahead as ‘the SNOW must go on.’ I’m sure everyone was happy for the rest, we’ve all been working super hard and need all the energy we can muster as we will be back at it again, shoveling through on Monday!

Have a fantabulously good week folks – enjoy the snow and I look forward to seeing you for our under the sea quest in January – get booking your tickets now to get good seats!

You won’t regret it! – Storm ;D

You can book your tickets here now.

This week we were swept along on the currents of the stormy ocean with rehearsal venues being changed but in true SMP spirit we pull together and make the best of a challenge.

On Monday we set the end of act 1 and what a thrill that’s going to be. A mash up of two wonderful songs and the choreography of our master Jo B!

On Wednesday we ran the show and our master Mike B worked with our funny duo Deborah Marsh who is playing Dr Love and Francois Vanhoutte to create a fantastic song that is going to steal the show! We also had our lovely costume mistresses Fay and Ellie organising us.

Finally we got to run the show on Sunday which surprised us all with how well it went!

We really do have a fantastic show on our hands and that’s with all thanks to our production team who have all worked so hard to get us to this point.

You really won’t want to miss our Under-the-Sea extravaganza; book those tickets now. You won’t be disappointed.

Hi, I’m Mike Benyon, musical director for this and the vast majority of SMP’s pantos in the last 25 years!

It’s normally fairly easy to tell early on whether you have a good show on your hands and A Little Mermaid certainly comes into that category.

To start with we are blessed with an SMP cast that continues to go from strength to strength. This includes incredibly talented newcomers Niki KC, Julie Dowling and Barnaby Davis and the return of the wonderful Debbie Marsh who was in my first SMP panto, Alice in Wonderland, back in 1993.

We once again have an hilarious script written by Warren McWilliams who is achieving great success having now published many of his others with Lazy Bee Scripts. One of the most positive aspects for me this year is our choice of exciting songs which include a variety of classic pop and musical songs and modern pop.

Without wishing to sound like an old fusty, one issue that I have every year is to arrange 21st century chart songs that have no chords or tune into something that will sound good with a live band and chorus. Fortunately in amongst all of the tut we have unearthed some classics that sound fantastic with our talented cast.

This year again I have had the pleasure of writing an original song “A Fairy tale Ending” which will be sung by our Princess and her mermaid sisters. On last Wednesday’s rehearsal I was so pleased and impressed with how the girls sang it that I have decided to go into a studio to record it a couple of weeks before Xmas. This is obviously a very exciting project and we will post the final mix in a few weeks’ time.

I am very fortunate to be working alongside a couple of great people. Michael Lacey is making his debut as a director and clearly has a flair for it. Jo Bakhurst has an amazing talent for producing exciting and vibrant dance routines that are so perfect for the songs we are doing.

Next Sunday is our first Sunday rehearsal and it will be exciting to see everything start to come together. As musical director I don’t get the opportunity to see any of the characterisation until the first run throughs so this is always an exciting time.

The thing that always occurs to me is that SMP always put as much effort into producing a panto as they do for their summer musicals. This production is certainly no exception with numerous full on chorus numbers with complex dance routines and harmonies. With many of these songs led by Lucy Sardinha, Jack McGinn and Kate Sanders who all have beautiful voices this is sure to be a show to remember.

You really won’t want to miss our Under-the-Sea extravaganza; book those tickets now. You won’t be disappointed.

Greetings humans! This week’s blog comes from your very own sea princess- Coral. I’m Mariel’s (ditzy) sister and proud daughter of King Triton- Lord of the Seas.

This week’s rehearsal saw the return of our glorious costumiers Ellie and Fay, who came armed with sequins and ball-gowns, ready to robe us under-the-sea royalty. There was great excitement as us mermaids prepared to decorate our shell-bras. With glitz and sea-shells a plenty and under careful supervision, us ‘mers’ went home with bags of pearls and trinkets. If I don’t make it to the shows in January- presume I’ve glued myself to something whilst operating a glue-gun.

As show week creeps ever closer, our headquarters were a hive of activity on Wednesday. We almost lifted the roof off with our rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls. Kate makes a formidable Octavia- I certainly wouldn’t want to be in Mariel’s shoes! Mike put our vocals to the test with some thrilling harmonies and our Mash-Up with the crowd pleasing ‘I’ll put a Spell on You’ is sure to impress.

As per usual, Debbie kept us going with her resident tuck-shop. I don’t know what I’d do without that ‘tea’ break sugar rush.

You really won’t want to miss our Under-the-Sea extravaganza; book those tickets now. You won’t be disappointed.

Welcome mere mortals. This is Triton! I am Mariel’s father and king of the Merfolk.

We had the pleasure this week to be rehearsing one of Jo B’s awesome choreographed numbers. This dance is a interesting mix between fluid movements to more upbeat choreography. Jo, as always, tested our dance ability and all the cast help each other practise and perfect the dance. In my opinion this my favourite dance of the show; however, there are still more dances to learn!

As it was the eve of Halloween, it was more than enough of an excuse to have an impromptu mini party, spooky music, freestyle dancing and a light show! That’s how SMP roll!

On Wednesday, we were learning another new song for this jam-packed panto. And what a number has been chosen. Like previous bloggers I’m not going to give any spoilers to what the song is but it’s a goodie!

Anyway, I must get back to ruling the sea now. Book your tickets now. Don’t miss out!

You can book your tickets by clicking below.

Panto always has more songs and dances than any regular musicals, so if you don’t keep going over them it can be quite a daunting task to get everything up to standard in the last couple of months before show week. It’s always fun to run through the dances too, as it shows you how much you’ve already covered and it’s a free fitness class! Jo has choreographed some really fun, upbeat numbers to get our audiences toe tapping already and there’s more to come!

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that as one of the longstanding members of the group, the energetic dances are getting to be more challenging each year and Jo certainly take no prisoners with her choreography! It takes a while to build your stamina back up after the Summer break and dance recaps are always both mentally and physically tiring, but they give you a good indication of how much homework you need to do and mostly it’s a good surprise to realise how much you can remember! We all left the Monday rehearsal tired and aching, but very excited about performing these dance to our audiences.

We were joined by our fab tech team  on Monday as SM Alex Snow, Lighting designer Matt Herd, Set genius extraordinaire Matt McManus and general nuisance Warren McWilliams started to work through all the technical aspects of the show to make sure everything we want to happen will and we’ll ensure everything looks great, runs smoothly and there’s magic throughout the show.

On Wednesday it was time to learn two new songs and as usual we were all blown away by the collective sound that such a talented cast can produce – even if we do say so ourselves! Mike is very clever with his musical arrangements and his patience with us when we all get a bit overexcited and rowdy is commendable! I don’t want to give too much away, but one of the songs we learnt made a few members of the group emotional (in a good way!) – I won’t name names though to spare their blushes and protect their image!

It’s lovely to have new and old faces again in the cast for this show and the newly crowned Mrs Wall has been helping with the team bonding by running the SMP tuck shop and setting fun quizzes to do in the break – this week’s quiz was based on Musical titles, so no surprise that everyone got top marks!

The Mermaids also had their first costume fitting on Wednesday which was top secret, we all can’t wait to see what our magical costume team of Fay, Ellie and the very talented Debbie Sandys have come up with! Needless to say we won;t look like this.

The show is definitely starting to take shape and if it’s half as much fun to watch as it is to rehearse then you need to get booking your tickets now, so you don’t miss out on all the fun!

You can book your tickets by clicking below.

I am Crusty, the super intelligent villainous side kick of Octavia! I am using big words like villainous in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis – you know like clever and that!

We have had a marvellous time in rehearsal this week learning lots of songs and dances to dazzle you with!

Monday saw the Pirates take the stage and learn their Aaarghsome routine. The mermaids also did a fishy dance or two and they were superb! Myself and my fellow evil sidekick Corky got to work through some of our scenes and sing our hearts out! We hope our Bossneship Octavia will be proud of us!

This is a marvellous rib tickling production from Warren McWilliams and we are loving the creative decisions from our Director Michael Lacey, Choreographer Jo Bakhurst and Musical Director Mike Benyon!

What’s that Corky? No I’m not placing a pizza order… no, I can’t I’m writing a blog… what? Octavia? Ahhh! Crusty over and out! See you at the show!

Click below to book tickets.

After taking a break during the summer I couldn’t wait to get my feet tapping again so its an absolute pleasure to be back in the arms of this wonderful team.

Monday saw us members of the chorus having a night off while the principal actors blocked scenes with Mr Fishbossman Micheal. I can not wait to see what they have done, i just know its going to be amazing as will be the show! Its Michaels directorial debut and for a first timer he knows exactly what hes doing- hes got a vision and he is bringing it to life!

Wednesday evening a group of us joined Mr Mikey ‘Keys of steel’ Benyon round the piano to learn a belter of a number which is going too look and sound stunning once our fintastic choreographer Jo B gets us shaking our tails!!

We sung through and recapped what had already been learnt which really helped on a personal level after missing a couple of weeks due to illness.

While all that was going on the mermaids were with our fabulous costume ladies Ellie and Miss Fay organising their fins….. I just cant wait for you all to hear and see the phenomenon that is SMPs The Little Mermaid. Tickets are now on sale don’t miss out book today!!!

Click below to book tickets.

Luke here, aka Corky a splendidly dense minion shark!

Another fun week of rehearsals here in SMP’s production of The Little Mermaid. Monday saw us recapping the dance numbers already learned and then setting the dance to our finale song. Without giving it away, it’s an absolute banger of a track and the routine matches it! Jo B (our wonderful choreographer) again smashed it and put us through our paces with another inspired routine.

Wednesday saw us getting our sing on. Legendary musical director Mike Benyon banged out 3 numbers in one night! We set a fantastic ‘baddie’ song, a beautiful heartbreaking solo for our Mermaid in Chief (the fabulous Lucy Sardinha), and then an absolute stormer of a song for the Prince (Jack McGinn). The Prince’s number was a particular highlight for me, it’s one of my favourite songs – a proper rock ballad and we got to be the backing choir enjoying some amazing harmonies and a little bit of air grabbing. I won’t spoil what the song is, but trust me – it’s an absolute scorcher and I can’t wait to see and hear it when it all comes together!

Also on Wednesday, the fabulous Debbie Wall gave us her ultimate Disney quiz. While I love a good quiz, I think some of our group were a little more suited and were crushed to learn they got one answer wrong!

Much fun had by all here at SMP HQ this week and this show is already shaping up rather nicely to be a cracker. Tickets are on sale now, so jump on the website and book yours now! Trust me, it’s going to be Fin-tastic!!!

Tickets are on sale now, click below to book.