Hooked on the Fonz .... Henry Winkler and Bobby Davro in Peter Pan
Peter Pan feels like one big dig at the panto dissenter - a story about kids who refuse to grow up versus those of us who have grown up and have become terminally dull in the process.
The New Wimbledon Theatre's rendition stars Henry Winkler aka the Fonz as Captain Hook. Quite what persuaded the one-time coolest man on the planet to swap his leather jacket for a peri-wig and twiddly moustache is anyone's guess. What next? Chachi as Rumpelstiltskin?
As I took my seat, it was looking bleak. Firstly, Peter Pan has no dame and no ponies. To cap it all, when the Fonz finally appeared a few minutes into the first act he didn't say: "eeeehhhhhhhh".
But then that weird panto magic thing happened again - combined, admittedly, with an unfeasibly generous measure of alcohol from the foyer bar. The actors flew over the stage, even over the audience at one point. There was a big comedy crocodile, Henry Winkler eventually did his Fonzie impression and Bobby Davro was really, really funny.
Just re-reading that last bit and the sheer improbability of ever thinking it, let alone writing it, reminds me how far I've come in one short week.
It gets worse. In the second half - fortified by yet more alcohol - I almost blubbed at the "clap if you believe in fairies" line, such was the wild, enthusiastic applause from the children in the audience. I tried to clap myself but I couldn't because I had a gigantic tumbler of red wine clenched in my right fist - so I used the other free hand and, I kid you not, slapped my thigh instead.
Oh the shame.
