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Howard Blake, The Snowman Ballet: Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Peacock Theatre, London, 4.12.2008 (BBr)

You’ll Believe a Snowman Can Fly!

Here’s something for all the family which is fabulously entertaining. It has everything, a great story about a boy and his friend the Snowman, who have adventures with a cat, the fruit from the family refrigerator, a pair of false teeth, a motorcycle and a frosting (is that a good collective noun?) of other snowmen. There’s a real baddie, Jack Frost (boo, hiss), to whom a Scottish snowman gives a Glasgow kiss, and Santa himself makes an appearance.

Based on the book by Raymond Briggs, and the justly famous animated film with music by Howard Blake, this is a full evening's show with everything from the film and much more to fill out the proceedings;  but there’s no padding – every event is essential to the development of the plot which is told in music and dance only, a very attractive short carol – why has this never caught on as a separate item, I wonder? – and the well known Walking in the Air being the only vocal sections.

We know the plot. The first half starts with the boy building his snowman and after bedtime things really get going; the Snowman has adventures in the house, with a cat sleeping peacefully in an armchair, he watches TV, and on opening the refrigerator out comes a coconut, a pineapple and a banana and a merry dance, complete with trying to get under a limbo pole, ensues. Fun with a sink and the deep freeze follow and then the Snowman and the boy take a ride on a motorcycle (here there was a nice in–joke for the number plate of the machine was HB 70 in honour of the composer’s 70^th birthday this year) scaring the local wild animals. The first part ends with the boy and the snowman taking flight to the sounds of Walking in the Air. The sight of the two of them flying was truly magical and held the audience spellbound.

The second half takes place, in the main, at the North Pole where all the snowmen, and two penguins (sic), have come to dance and celebrate Christmas. Our Snowman falls in love with the Ice Princess but the evil Jack Frost tries to take her from him, a long section of various dances follows and Jack fails in his attempts to seduce her. Santa hands out presents and the Snowman and the boy return home. The following morning the boy finds that the Snowman has melted and wonders if he dreamed everything but finds, in his pocket, the scarf given to him by Santa. But a piece like this cannot have a sad ending so we have an 8 minute curtain call where everyone re–appears and we celebrate the dance.

The setting and choreography are simplicity itself. We don’t need to actually see everything, we know what is implied. The dancing ranges from a wind–up ballerina, to tango (the sight of the Snowman and the Ice Princess in Rudolf Valentino poses is quite hilarious), music hall and quasi–rock’n’roll.

A small cast of fourteen take all the parts brilliantly, and obviously have great fun throughout. Blake’s wonderful music – nearly two hours of it – is skillfully worked out from the famous song and what we have is an huge set of variations where the various musical strands carry the story forwards with ease, making everything easy to follow. The band of only five players made a wonderful sound, and convinced that a larger ensemble was in the pit.

The show runs until 11th January and shouldn’t be missed. All the kids in the audience enjoyed every second of it, ooohing and aaahing at the many delightful strokes of invention, design and action. You really will believe that a Snowman can fly – and even the under 10s had fun! Fantastic!

Bob Briggs


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