The Theatre Royal has an enviable reputation for panto, and its past two productions of Sleeping Beauty have had an eye for star quality, with a young Joanne Whalley taking the role in 1983 and Parminder Nagra playing the sleepy head in 1994. Ten years on there seems no reason why Hannah Lawrence, a charming yet mould-breaking Princess Zarina, the future queen of a mythical African kingdom, shouldn't hit the big time too, even if this year's offering is not a vintage one.
It is perfectly nice and Nick Barnes's design, which creates a desert kingdom with a vaulting royal palace of towering columns, is impressive. You don't expect this level of visual flair from a pantomime. There is a great sequence, too, just before the interval as the princess journeys towards the upstairs room where the wicked godmother waits with a spindle. It is done as a piece of silhouette puppetry and has the stomach-churning tension of a horror film where the heroine is about to meet the serial killer.
Overall, though, the show lacks the sense of fun that you expect and want from a panto. I enjoyed the black market trade in spindles that springs up in the kingdom that the spindle police do their best to thwart, but there are not enough good jokes or - with one or two exceptions, including Eve Polycarpou's bad godmother - sufficient energy to get the audience going. Marcus Powell's likable but low-key Nanny may protest that she's not like Mary Poppins but, in fact, is rather too much like her. I know two shows a day is tough, but that's what actors are paid to do at this time of year and they should put some welly into it.
· Until January 22. Box office: 020-8534 0310.
