You don’t expect panto to tamper with the classic ingredients: ear-busting songs, dance routines, topical jokes and bombardments of sweets from the stage that whip the kids into a frenzy. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen them all come together quite so enjoyably as in this fantastically good-natured production. Soho theatre’s artistic director, Steve Marmion, who has masterminded the Playhouse’s Christmas offering for the past three years, has done an excellent job again. Swerving tabloid-famous walk-ons, he has assembled a hard-working, well-marshalled cast who cover all the bases with style.
So we have clean-cut Ricky Oakley as Dick, accompanied by all-action Alessandro Babalola as his feline chum, who provides our starry-eyed hero with street-smart, world-weary wisdom. Fairy Bowbells (Rebecca Craven) loiters on the gantry providing the overview, while Adrianna Bertola is feisty baker’s daughter Alice, who ends up spearheading a voters’ revolt.
No prizes for guessing that there are gags about everything from the Brexit bus to Boris Johnson, while the “grown-up” jokes about our hero’s first name are as old as time itself – but Babalola’s nicely snarky Oxford-baiting reference to Stormzy was properly leftfield.
As for the trad panto comic business, veteran dame Paul Barnhill does the honours as the cook (showing off, incidentally, a fine baritone voice), and Max Olesker is really very funny as an Anthony Blanche-ish King Rat. (In truth, pantos are never actually that hilarious, but I found myself laughing out loud at some of Olesker’s lines.)
My two small companions, as ever, screamed like mad whenever they were invited to do so – the he’s-behind-you business was brief but highly concentrated, and they seemed on the verge of taking the roof off. They nearly fell out of their seats when Babalola scrambled practically over their heads during an in-the-audience bit. (Their only substantial complaint was that the cook failed to aim a pack of Haribo straight at them when he was hurling sweets into the audience, but I think this counts as a Life Lesson.) On a more inspiring note, my eight-year-old was much taken with the chance to vote in the mayoral elections at the play’s finale, and – without wanting to give too much away – the unexpected candidacy of one of the cast.
