BWW Reviews: DICK WHITTINGTON at New Wimbledon Theatre, 15 December 2011
Well it's not Hedda Gabler, that's for sure.
Dick Whittington (at New Wimbledon Theatre until 15 January 2012) is an avalanche of traditional pantomime tropes (okay, pantomime cliches – but we love 'em) under bright lights that bounce off the costumes to scour the retina and with sets that seem to leap out into the audience. (Don't believe me? There's a turtle who will beg to differ). Like all the best entertainment, you don't have to wonder where your cash has gone – it's all there in front of you!
Britain's Mr Panto, Eric Potts, has assembled a cast of old hands (and one very old hand indeed) and a couple of young leads off the telly, armed them with some bad gags (and some very bad gags) and taken on the dame to go with the writing and the directing. He loves it, though, and so do the cast, taking themselves just seriously enough to get through the familiar plot, but revelling in the slapstick, the patter and the corpsing. The audience are in the show from the start, booing and hissing King Rat, giving him plenty of “Oh no it isn't”s and flinging around five toilet rolls (don't ask – it's best not to).
Sam Attwater and Anna Williamson (the ones off the telly) are a handsome enough pair, but don't have much to do, as Kev Orkian (Jack – a Redcoat on Red Bull) and Ben Goffe (Captain Titchworth) circle around Potts' dame as the dresses get more and more outlandish.
And rising above the fray (often literally) is housewife and gigastar, adviser to royalty and creator of the World Prostate Olympics, the one and only, Dame Edna Everage. She flits in and out of the show, scattering fairydust wherever she goes, doing the disdain, drama-queening and Down-Undering as she has for years and years. Less cruel in a family show, she still finds the odd barb for a woman pulled from the audience, delighted to be in the company of Moonee Ponds' finest, indeed possibly only, export. And the comic timing is immaculate – Edna has learned much since her manager Barry Humphries last appeared at New Wimbledon Theatre in 1960 as Mr Sowerberry in Oliver Twist. (Go on - do the math!)
London isn't short of a panto or twenty and this one isn't the cheapest, but you won't hear that from any of the kids, young and old, who went into the wet night after three hours of mayhem, magic and mocking as only The Dame and the dame can do.
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