BWW Reviews: ALADDIN, Greenwich Theatre, December 11 2011

People like a fat bird at Christmas and Andrew Pollard's Widow O'Twankey isn't going to let them down. (Okay - that'll do for my double entendres).

Pollard is back at Greenwich Theatre (until 8 January) in his self-penned Aladdin, a panto full of actors  not celebrities, audience participation not audience humiliation and enough "Behind yous!" and "Oh No he isn'ts" to please the ghost of Les Dawson. Though it can be difficult to see past the Dame's ever more outrageous costumes, Pollard has pulled together a fine cast of old pros and young talents to help him tell the tale of Aladdin, the boy with the Lamp and Abanazar, the evil magician who coverts it. And the story, still strong after all these re-tellings, is at the heart of the entertainment, despite all the silly, shouty shenanigans.

Old pro that he is, Pollard knows that a strong Dame needs strong support (quiet at the back now) and he gets it from Paul Critoph (Emperor Fu), pleasingly corpsing as he and Pollard try an old music hall routine about the waters of the Nile, Adam Dougal as a puppy-doggishly enthusiastic Aladdin with an Eamonn Holmes accent, and Laura Wickham, who sings beautifully as Princess So-Shy. I suspect the kids will favour Anthony Spargo's villainous Abanazar and Daniel Nortford's livewire, MC Hammer of a Genie - and why not? They are brilliantly over the top in their roles.

There's plenty of contemporary gags, songs from the oeuvres of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry no less, played wonderfully well by Steven Markwick's band while the cast dance about in glittering costumes on spectacular sets bountiful in bling. There's even a wonderfully well executed flying carpet ride to Egypt, oohhed and ahhed at by kids and adults alike. 

Between the jokes at Jedward's expense and a farting panda, a respect, even a love, for panto as a theatrical form runs throughout the two hours and more of this show. That respect is present in the great comic acting and strong singing which stand out even against the most garish of sets and most shimmering of outfits. This is Pollard's seventh panto at Greenwich Theatre and, as a Dame must, he loves it at much as the little kids and the big kids in an audience treated to a Christmas cracker of a show.