December 1, 2024 · 6:27 pm
THE COOLEST CAT IN LONDON. AND SOME RATS.
Here’s your conventional Christmas outing, correct panto. No rackety popstar hype or tedious suggestive jokes from worn-out comicS, simply brilliant colors, and units that make a child need to go residence and construct their very own even when they will’t construct a revolve. Add cheerful sixties tunes and a swinging plot with some genuinely eccentric twists; plus, as it’s set in London, the odd well-deserved swipe at Sadiq Khan.
Anthony Spargo’s couplets even rhyme and scan correctly, and the writer himself takes the position of the evil Ratticus rising, as he ought to , demonically from the ground in a startling 1960’s red-and-black pinstripe with large shoulderpads. Not that evil has any likelihood in opposition to the gallant Dick (a likeable Samuel Bailey) and his eyecatchingly very cool Cat. Who is Inez Ruiz, prowlingly ginger in furs, who slinks round often enjoying the saxophone.
Just sufficient modernity for the bells of London to be performed by a projected clock-face speaking in a Kenneth Williams voice, simply sufficient bizarre crypto-educational plot for a Dr Who phonebox to swallow varied solid members and return to the Great Fire of London , so the extra considerate kids can muse on the impossibility of fixing previous historical past. Only it does, as again of their current day good Dame Megg’s bakery has turn into a dodgy Rat-a-Manger, and there’s a thrillingly naughty on line casino. Those within the younger viewers who’ve already achieved Tudor History can respect the thought of a store referred to as Catherine Tarragon. Oh, and there may be the kitchen scene, the struggle scene, and the odd bum and slime joke, as there ought to be. And there’s Louise Cieleki as a moist minnie-mouse attempting to be a convincing highly effective rat, a social sensation now we have all had in our lives.
There’s nothing like sneaking early to a faculties matinee to evaluate a correct panto. My lot – I feel three SE London faculties – had been singing alongside deafeningly to “Last Christmas” nicely earlier than the curtain, and greater than prepared to yell again each catch-phrase. But simply as importantly they had been concentrating on the story, correctly and quietly when wanted and roaring approval when applicable. Close to me one small lad, beforehand displaying each indicators of getting “challenging” on his report card, leaned ahead keenly at each twist, particularly the time-travel. After the interval he hurried again to attend for half 2. So there you’re: you’ll discover starrier pantos and louder ones and ruder ones and much costlier ones, but when we nonetheless lived in Greenwich that’s the place I’d begin Christmas.
greenwichtheatre.org.uk to 5 jan
ranking 4
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