Aladdin

Published Monday 3 December 2007 at 10:30 by Andrew Blades

Following last year’s Dick Whittington, Oxford Playhouse have crash-landed their magic carpet into Widow Twankey’s laundry basket and come up with a colourful but comforting Aladdin. There are no experiments or risks taken with the classic format - audiences will certainly get their money’s worth of bad puns, mummy chase scenes, “It’s behind you” and slapstick conjuring tricks.

The formidable Simon Green dons drag for a second year running, and his Widow Twankey is the unofficial draw of the show. He tots up five or six costume changes and manages to sneak in the occasional risque ‘slip of the tongue’ with great panache. Nevertheless, Green’s routine is there to keep the parents happy. The kids, on the other hand, will probably prefer Fraser Collins’ disco-shimmying genie; the end of the first half sees Beijing collide with Studio 54 as he leads the cast into a seventies sing-off.

Miles Western has the Abanazar cackle down to a fine art, too, while the young Aladdin and his princess, played by Michael Steedon and Charlotte Warren, are not as soppy as last year’s couple. Howard Gossington’s Wishie Washie is perhaps the most amiable character of all, occasionally dim-witted but all heart - a pair of safe hands to direct the audience through the mayhem.

Few surprises then, even if the exact moment the foam-gun sprays the stalls is still riotous fun. By the end of the play, in the words of the genie, “You should be dancing”, whatever your age or disposition.