Review: The Snow Queen dazzles and delights at Waterside

If you love snow, sparkles, songs, physical comedy (and funky polar bears called Flash) you’ll want to book one of the few remaining tickets for Waterside’s brand-new festive show.

Created by the award-laden Yorkshire-based Wrongsemble company (with whom Waterside have regularly collaborated), The Snow Queen is aimed at anyone who loves a beautiful Christmas show with a difference. Expect a refreshingly eco-conscious, song-packed voyage through space and time that leaves you buzzing with inspiration.

The story follows the lively 10-year-old Lumi as she attempts to make contact with the Snow Queen – a glacial, glamorous figure played by Richard Priestley, who controls the weather. Lumi is worried about the warming climate and hopes that the Snow Queen could, just this once, make it snow. On her journey around the world to the Queen’s palace she meets a elves, tortoises and more, all played by the biggest star in the show, the 2020 Oliver award-winning Molly-Grace Cutler (who you may recognise from the Worst Witch UK stage show).

We won’t spoil the surprises, but let’s just say that there are plenty of songs from across the pop genres, as well as impressive outfits, accents, dance numbers and illuminations. And the Snow Queen’s finale is particularly fabulous.

With recent Arden School graduate, Amy Tara, leading the way at Lumi, this is a show about the environment, which ends on an uplifting note, and comes packed with more creativity (and original songs by Rosie Fox) than you’ll find anywhere else this side of the North Pole.