Am I a cynical old cow who deserves to be made into Bovril, or does the fashion for rather grand actors to embrace the Christmas panto have less to do with a desire to experience a custard pie in the face, and more to do with a fat pay cheque at a time of the year when revivals of Titus Andronicus are thin on the ground? With Sir Ian McKellen at the Old Vic and Simon Callow hamming it up in Richmond as the evil Abanazar - "great sorcerer and part-time thespian" - one wonders where it will all end.
It invariably seems to be the men who delight in the opportunity to put on a bit of bling and ham it up: Callow seizes the opportunity to do both, his face scowling out from a costume that appears to have been designed with both magicians and space travellers in mind. Callow's theatrical pedigree is the source of an ongoing gag that is lost on the nine-year-olds in the audience, but does allow for a certain amount of Shakespearian referencing. There is a touch of Macbeth about this Abanazar, and I don't think I will ever again hear Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech without hearing "Too tubby, or not too tubby".
Callow certainly gives us our money's worth, but much of this evening is paste rather than real diamonds. Patsy Kensit's genie is desperately wan and Christopher Biggins's Widow Twankey relies more on outfits than acting. And whatever happened to the story, which withers away as soon as Aladdin has found the lamp in the cave? Still, the audience throw themselves into it with a determined-to-have-a-good-time theatrical Blitz spirit that is as cheering as mulled wine and sees us all through comfortably to the final singalong.
· Until January 22. Box office: 0870 060 6651.
