Snow White is probably not the only show this season to open with Being Nobody, but surely no other theatre gives Liberty X's jaunty pop hit so creepy a setting. From the back of the stalls, a funereal procession slow-steps its way to the stage, whereupon sparks fly and ominous clouds of smoke pour forth from the hands of these mysterious creatures in black. Within minutes, there's a death by childbirth, a murder threat and a father duped into sacrificing his baby daughter. The Krankies it is not.
The problem with Kenny Miller's production is that it can't decide what sort of show it wants to be. In its gothic design (also by Miller) and camp flamboyance, it is like a tribute to the 1970s glory days of the Citz, all red lights, trick mirrors and streamers. With its use of Liberty X hits - Just a Little is also in there - it feels like a mainstream pantomime. And in its desire to tell a dark and complex story by Robert David MacDonald, working from the Brothers Grimm original, it is like the Christmas shows of Stuart Paterson.
You could argue that such eclecticism is true to the panto ethos, but the framework is all wrong for that. MacDonald sets out to tell an archetypal story of a girl overcoming parental tyranny to achieve sexual liberation, but uses the clumsy pantomime form to do it. This does no one any favours. On the one hand, the songs are out of place, the comedy falls flat and it's not clear when to hiss and cheer; on the other, the story is psychologically unsatisfying.
But the collision of styles is fascinating, and it is liberating to see what Christmas entertainment might be like in a parallel universe where all the rules are different.
· Until December 27. Box office: 0141-429 0022.
