When it comes to who's the fairest of them all in this year's Christmas pantomime, hands down it was Jennifer Osmond as the Ice Queen.

With a beautiful voice and deliciously wicked laugh, Ms Osmond did a fantastic job in Thursday night's Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society (BMDS) performance of "Snow White & The Seven Sisters in the Land of Ice & Snow" at the City Hall Theatre.

No stranger to local drama, Ms Osmond lived up to the words of her character: She was "beauty everlasting and a perfect piece of casting". As the Ice Queen she was wise also. "A good husband is compliant and generous." Who could argue with that?

The script for this year's pantomime was written by Carol Birch, and it contained all the usual ingredients that make for an enjoyable performance: fun original music, Kelvin Hastings-Smith in drag as the Dame and free candy raining down, although there were plenty of missed opportunities to fling more of the sweet stuff.

The plotline followed traditional pantomimes.

Set in the magical kingdom of St. George's, which includes an ice forest, the rich old king, played capably by newcomer Alan Brooks, falls for the Ice Queen, the wrong sort of woman entirely and the classic evil stepmother .

The moment she slips a magic ring on his finger he forgets everything, and she gets him to sign away the family fortune. Meanwhile she plots to get rid of her new stepchild, Snow White (Alison Evans). When Snow White disappears into the forest with the Ice Queen's servant Grimshaw (Ben Smith), her boyfriend, Prince James of St. David's (Gareth Lewis) goes off to look for her.

Meanwhile the Ice Queen begins to adjust the thermostat more to her liking. The normally warm land of St. George's turns to snow, ice and blowing wind.

Helping to rescue Snow White are seven Sisters led by Kelvin Hastings-Smith as Madonna, the bashful dwarf. It is hard to imagine a pantomime without Mr. Hastings-Smith in this role. During intermission one audience member, Karen Tavares, said she came every year to see the pantomime, just to see Mr. Hastings-Smith as the Dame. His character of Madonna was anything but bashful. She rode around on a revved up toilet with wheels – bringing new meaning to the phrase "portable potty". "It goes from A to Pee in 60 seconds," said Madonna. "I borrowed it from the Government carpool."

The seven sisters, all named after famous singers, including Brittney as the dopey dwarf – replaced the seven dwarfs when their work permits were cancelled by the Immigration Department. The sisters were played by a group of women with a dizzying range of accents – Jenny Burrell, Val Butterfield, Reneka Hill, Kathy Kawaley, Debbie Raat, and Lesley Wharton.

Costumes were done by Nicola Wilkinson. There was nothing shabby about the costumes, but they seemed run-of-the-mill. Snow White's costume appeared to be straight out of a Disney catalogue. The ice sprites running around with what looked like ripped toilet paper for icicles didn't work so well for me. Unfortunately, they looked like some kind of discount do-it-yourself lingerie. The best costume, other than that of Madonna, was Jacques (James Bennett), the French cat, clad in jaunty whiskers and hat, although there were times when he looked more spaniel than feline.

Mr. Bennett was a scream as the cat. With a great stage presence, energy and an hysterical French accent, he was the perfect foil for Mr. Hastings-Smith.

But all of the performers did very well especially Alison Evans and Gareth Lewis.

Other characters included stage veteran Connie Dey as the king's faithful servant and James Bennett as the French cat. The Mirror on the Wall was played by Devaune Ratteray and was a face against a high tech screen. Mr. Ratteray also acted as the choreographer. It was his fifth pantomime with BMDS and his second as choreographer.

One of the sweetest surprises was a group of penguins wandering through the ice forest. These were played by a number of young children. In 2008, penguins have been hot, appearing in a number of movies this year.

Other critical people involved in the pantomime included James Burn as composer, Kate Ross as musical director, Naomi Little as artistic producer, Jack Durner as business producer and Nicola Wilkinson and Paul Harney as very important trees.

A time-honoured British tradition, this year's pantomime was plain fun. If anyone says they're not going, just reply: "Oh, yes you are!"