Dick Whittington

Published Wednesday 12 December 2007 at 11:25 by Liz Arratoon

Simply forget the weirdly exotic script excursions, the recorded music and a boy playing principal boy, this Dick is all about a rat, a dame and two funny men, who must have been hiding their lights somewhere. Oh, and an underwater black light party.

But first let’s mention the strong line-up as soap favourite Lucy Benjamin takes on Alice Fitzwarren, Rikki Jay storms it as Dick, Eddie Caswell plays Alderman Fitzwarren and Kaitlyn Carr sparkles as Fairy Bow Bells, while Rebecca Stone somersaults her way into the kids’ hearts as Tommy the Cat.

Then prepare to lap up the cream - John Lyons’ King Rat, dripping malevolence, is the perfect prince of darkness, his every entrance cracking with thunder and lightning. Malcolm Lord is a dream of a dame. He has legs to die for and looks a million in John Inman’s collection of outrageous costumes. And Rob and Darren Harper (Bobby Ball’s sons) as Bosun Muck and Captain Cringe respectively are a revelation. True old-fashioned comics, their silly antics cause a riot.

Ensemble dancers Wendy Sinclair, Hayley Hills, Rebecca Crisp, Vicky Field, Matt Warren and Michael Longstaff, and the Babes from Songtime Theatre Arts help pave these particular streets of London with gold.