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Aladdin

Published Thursday 27 December 2007 at 15:15 by Richard Edmonds

Panto is nothing if not filled with surprises, with astonishingly fluent performances turning up in the most unlikely circumstances - and vice versa, of course, when one’s expectations are not fulfilled.

This particular version of Aladdin has perhaps the best Abanazar I have seen in recent years, with Samuel Holmes giving the role all the crisp attack and shapeliness of a seasoned RSC actor. When he comes on stage, he insists on being obeyed. Glittering with venom, he can shoot out a put-down with the best and is truly an actor to be watched, since Abanazars in the future will one day depend upon gifted twenty-somethings like him.

Aladdin (Jane Quinn) generally swishes on with the company singers and dancers and lets loose a voice that could demolish Fort Knox in seconds. But she is as dedicated to the work in hand, as is the rest of the company, and when she speaks, you do hear every word.

The dame is the wonderful Craig Cowdroy, who makes Widow Twankey into a dangerous creature, as lethal as Danny La Rue was in his heyday, thus upholding the ancient tradition of the true dame, something we see so little of these days. Dames should have a knife edge - here is a masterly performance reminding us of true panto anarchy.

Elsewhere, Wink Taylor is a charming Wishee Washee doubling as the Genie of the Lamp who is a knowing little mouse, and Georgina Mellor, who organises rather than directs the show, walking on and off to little effect as the Spirit of the Ring. Mellor repeats her winsome charms from Footballers’ Wives in Pekin.

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