HOME PAGE SEARCH REVIEWS FEATURES NEWS Etcetera and Short Term Listings LISTINGS Broadway Off-Broadway BOOKS and CDs OTHER PLACES Berkshires London LA/San Diego Philadelphia Elsewhere QUOTES On TKTS LETTERS TO EDITOR FILM LINKS MISCELLANEOUS Free Updates Masthead Writing for us |
A CurtainUp London Review
Aladdin
Full of smoke and flashes revealing the Genie of the Lamp (Daniel Robinson) and the Genie of the Ring (Laura Curnick), Greenwich's production is very pleasing visually. Some of the colourful costumes were sourced in the wonderful bazaar in Morocco's Marrakech. The tale Aladdin of course has this curious blend of Eastern promise, set in Peking, Aladdin (Amarjit Bassan) sports a pigtail and a Chinese hat, the love of his life is a Mandarin Emperor's daughter Princess So-Shy (Emma Jay Thomas) and the Grand Vizier (Jonathan Kemp) is more Persian in origin. When in Cairo, courtesy Magic Carpet airlines, where a scary Egyptian Mummy steals a member of the cast, the whole auditorium is filled with children shouting "Behind You!" to the remaining actors. This is seriously involving audience participation. The Crazy Frog music is a masterstroke and really popular with the children. I loved Liam McKenna's Widow Twankey, younger than your average "dame", he (seemingly) adlibbed his way through the pantomime with fast patter and certainly the best jokes I've heard this season. For plenty of adult humour and quick fire comic lines Greenwich is the pantomime that will please the whole family. There are jokes about the leaning towells of pizza from the launderess Twankey, local references to the much hated Greenwich traffic wardens, and the future Olympics, and the topical, the Empress' (Rosie Ede) Botox injections. She used to be the barmaid at The Crispy Duck before she married the Emperor! Brian Protheroe as the villainous Abanazar stalks the stage in built up platform boots and a gold and black Siberian Cossack outfit, and sings "I'm Evil" to the tune of Peggy Lee's "I'm a woman, W-O-M-A-N". Amarjit Bassan as Aladdin is full of energy in the exciting chases and sings sweetly with the romantic interest Princess So-Shy (Emma Jay Thomas) and all ends happily with a white wedding scene. Fiona Laird has taken the traditional pantomime, rewritten by Andrew Pollard in witty rhyming couplets and cleverly produced a holiday show that will please adults and children alike. For more about this season's pantomines, see our 2005 Holiday show Feature
|
|