Sleeping Beauty is found in a Glasgow room with a view to the future

It’s 10am and audition day for panto. Producer Robert C Kelly and his team are about to decide upon three of the cast of this year’s Sleeping Beauty panto.

The successful Prince, Princess and Muddles will step onto the stage of the Gardyne Theatre in Dundee alongside the likes of former River City star Tom Urie, who is also charged with weighing up the talent.

But you can’t help but wonder how someone can walk into a space filled only with plastic chairs, a desk and a electric piano, suddenly pretend they’re on stage - and offer up a part-winning performance? How can they become Princely? How can they be clever enough to convince as stupid Muddles?

First up, one young man walks in and you’d think he were in front of the 400 people in the theatre, projecting up to the balcony. Before you could yell ‘Muddles is in the house’ he is giving a solid singing and acting performance. Nerves? If he had any they were packed away in his rucksack beside the wall.

He’ll get the job. Won’t he?

Number Two arrives. He expected to audition for the Muddles role but it’s the first he’s heard of it. The young man woke up that morning expecting to reveal his inner prince, and thanks to a mix up has to release his inner clown. But there’s no problem. He reveals he’s working in four shows at the moment and you can see why.

He’ll get the job, won’t he?

And so it continues. These people are good. Very good. “The talent level is not this high in Ireland,” says Robert Kelly who is producing three pantos there this year. “It means the task in Scotland is so much easier, yet paradoxically it’s harder to make the call.”

What the producer has to do is be pleasant to each performer, encouraging, to make them relaxed. But he can’t be too nice; you don’t want to offer false hope. And so he maintains a face as straight as Sleeping Beauty’s bed.

“You’re Joan Crawford,” says Tom Urie, grinning, when the most recent hopeful has left the room.

If someone looks to have real possibility they are asked to sit and chat for a moment. It’s a chance to give give the team some personal insight.

What are they looking for? An easy-going manner is crucial, after all this person will have to work with a cast for six weeks, two shows a day.

But they’re looking for more. Charisma. Star quality. You can’t define it of course, but you know it when you see it.

Does Number Four have it? There seems to be an aura around the lady who sings like she was born in New Orleans. And when she acts alongside assistant producer Trevor O’Connell she’s funny. But at 19, she’s raw.

Outside the room, she spoke of the process. “I was nervous going in there,” she says, “but you need the nerves to produce the adrenalin. But overall, I loved it. You just have to appear confident, even when you’re shaking inside.”

She’ll get the job, won’t she?

Another Prince arrives. He’s an accomplished stage performer. He sings Keane’s Somewhere Only We Go really well, But then he acts out a scene with McConnell and he’s so comedic you wonder wouldn’t he be a better Muddles? The producer has the same thought and the actor reads again, this time upping the stupid quotient.

He has to get the job, doesn’t he?

Number Six is a familiar face, almost a panto veteran, a class act who has appeared in a six months tour of West End show.

She’s a cert to land the job, isn’t she?

And so the Princes and Princesses arrive and depart.One young lady looks to so young you feel for her. And she really can sing.

But is this her day?

Robert Kelly points out you can’t expect someone to produce everything you would hope for on the day. “But they have to come in here and believe they can be a Princess.”

Trevor O’Connell adds; “It’s hard to judge on first impressions. Sometimes you see people come to an audition and think they’d be better working in a fashion shop. But then they go up on stage and blow you away.”

More Princesses appear. Some wear jeans, some are in dresses. One is so glam she looks as though she  has arrived on Love Island. And she has a belting voice. But is she too sexy to be a Princess?

The talent in the room is often breathtaking. The latest can really act and has a belting voice. 

She really has to get the job, doesn’t she?

But then two more great performers arrive and you can see the battle-weary eyes of the producer, piano player, co-star and assistant producer sparkle.

She just has to be the Princess?

More Princes appear. A couple of Muddles’ shine.

The production team know they will have a great cast. But you feel for the 27 who won’t make it. The dream will remain exactly that.

“It’s their job,” says the producer, now smiling. “These people are in the rejection business. But sometimes they win out. And it’s the wins that keep the dream alive.”