Susie McKenna’s annual glitter fest has the reputation for being one of the best in panto land, but while this new show is bright, brash and tuneful – offering nods towards Broadway’s Hamilton and Beyoncé – it is definitely not the brightest bauble on this year’s Christmas tree.
Good things include a huge cast, an eye-catching UV scene that has a touch of the Little Shop of Horrors, some very fine singing voices and a kick-ass princess (Alexia Khadime) who ends up saving her prince. The evening’s best weapons, as always, are the fact that it is fully embedded in the locality, isn’t afraid of a few cheeky political jokes and boasts a Hackney audience who are really up for a good time. Sharon D Clarke is the star turn as the evil fairy Carabosse, and she is a knockout but sorely underused.
Less happy are the first 10 minutes of backstory delivered in bewildering fashion with muddy sound and a lack of narrative coherence, a lame cream pie scene, an absence of momentum in the overlong weaker first half, a Dame (Gavin Spokes) who is likeable but lacks an outsize personality, and a growing feeling that – ingenious plot twists aside – the formula needs refreshing at this address. It delivers, but not with the sparkle of previous years, and it’s obvious that things are not firing on all cylinders when, in the latter stages, the audience is as entertaining as anything that happens on stage.
- At the Hackney Empire, London, until January 8. Box office: 020-8985 2424.
