BWW Reviews: SLEEPING BOOTY!, Leicester Square Theatre, November 27 2014

The less than saintly Stuart Saint has left his Dick! alone this year and come up with a cheeky little show: Sleeping Booty! (at the Leicester Square Theatre until 17 January). Loosely - and I mean loosely - based on the classic fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, the plot plays second fiddle to an explosion of panto conventions and cliches, smutty jokes and shocking non-special special effects, all done in the worst possible taste!

In a succession of outfits that would give pause to Dame Edna herself, Miss Dusty O's dastardly Evil Mangelina thwarts all the goodies' plans for Booty to realise her dream of joining the celebrity circuit. The Soho legend is at her best bantering with the audience and insulting "you, you, you lanky stream of p***" Booty (Alice Marshall), but also works well with sidekick dinosaur (yes, you read it right) Tit-Bit (Rachael Born). Booty is assisted by posh man in a sparkling codpiece Prince Willie Wontie (Leon Scott), Scottish Fairy Muff (Paula Masterton, who really should know better after spending the last two Christmases here) and multi-tasking You Look Familiar, Alexander Beck.

Sleeping Booty! may lack some of the wit and invention that made both Dick!s (2012 and 2013) such fun and, without much of a storyline on which to hang the gags, it feels a little long (ooh er.. Missus) at about two hours including the interval. But it's still great fun for those who embrace adult panto and, once you're down the stairs and in the basement of the theatre, you haven't got much choice. As the run progresses, I'd expect the show to loosen up a little and veer further into the banter with the audience and ad libbing that gets the biggest laughs (on stage and off). I'd love to hear more songs from the excellent Paula Masterton too.

So if you're happy to bury yourself in Booty and crack on with the wisecracks about wide cracks for 120 minutes, you'll enjoy another coarse, comic carnival in the West End. Just get to Haagen Dazs and then the venue is behind you. Behind you! BEHIND YOU!

Photo Marc Abe

To post a comment, you must register and login.