Christmas is coming, and in Oxford that means one thing: a pantomime from Peter Duncan – yes, the former Blue Peter presenter. He’s staged every Oxford Playhouse pantomime since 2006, so he knows what he’s doing. This year’s effort is the fairytale with more than a passing resemblance to Phantom of the Opera – ideal material for a self-conscious rendering, complete with Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish musical numbers and the Beast rising from beneath the stage to the sound of an organ.
The story is a stop-start affair. Master of ceremonies is the avuncular Fairy Sponge (whose moniker is presumably a tip of the tiara to The Great British Bake Off), played with cheery verve by Helena Raeburn; much of her repartee is devoted to scrapping with a witch-like giant eyeball perched high on the side of the stage. When the plot moves on, we’re introduced to Beauty (Sammy Andrews, no doubt receiving a massive ego boost every time she goes on stage), and her PA (Alan Vicary, who doubles as the bandage-swathed Beast).
Events are waylaid by the comedy stylings of Leon Craig, glorying in a fat suit, massive wigs and the name Dame Jolena Jollychops, and standup comic Dave Bibby, playing her thick son Jolly Jack. Craig, whose dame is a sort of ghostly housekeeper in the Beast’s castle, keeps things motoring with plenty of drag-act badinage with the audience – he picks mercilessly on a follically challenged spectator. Bibby has a few monologues in among the fairytale transformations, and inspires most of the oh-no-you’re-not screeching from the audience.
There are lots of opportunities for my four-year-old, Lucy, to manically wave her glowing windmill-on-a-stick (a snip at £4.50 in in the foyer beforehand), and, like every other kid in the place, she loudly vents her adoration for Tumbletoes, Beauty’s cutiepie gymnastic dog (played by the fantastically flexible Kate McWilliam).
Pantomimes are the trailblazers for kidult entertainment; like the wave of post-Pixar kiddie animated films, they may err on the side of trying a bit too hard to please the grown-ups. Aside from the witch’s laser-fuelled cackling (which proves slightly too scary for Lucy), this one gets the balance just right.
• Until 18 January. Box office: 01865 305 305. Venue: Oxford Playhouse.
