Theatre
Aladdin
Hackney Empire, E8
*****
Jack and the Beanstalk
Lyric, W6
***
This is the way to do it. As has been the Christmas custom for the past few years, the Hackney Empire once again blazes a glitter-dusted December trail.
In fact, if someone were looking for a prototype for the perfect panto, she would struggle to do better than copy the precision-tuned components on display in Aladdin. There’s the witty original script and songs to start with, relished by a group of actors confident enough to ad-lib and, crucially, enjoy themselves.
Throw in tap-dancing pandas, a talking camel and a delightful dame with quite the highest barnet in all zones of the Underground, and you have the reason why E8 is the postcode for every Christmas day.
The first scene serves as an ample statement of writer-director Susie McKenna’s immaculately judged intent. There’s pizzazz all over the place, as a pleasing complement of merry villagers skips about the East Peking suburb of Ha-Ka-Ney, home of Widow Twankey’s Wash-Me-Niks Laundry.
The entry of Clive Rowe’s Twankey — last year, he became the first Dame to be nominated for an Olivier Award — is delayed for maximum impact but once on stage he becomes an unstoppable force of fine singing voice, delicious asides and an astounding range of costumes and wigs.
No one can rival him but the likes of Anna Jane Casey’s short-skirt-and-fishnets-sporting Aladdin don’t mind trying. "What can they do? Close us in January?" quips Rowe, as he tosses sweets into the auditorium with merry disregard for the spoilsports of Health and Safety. It’s a salutary reminder that the post-panto future for the financially beleaguered Empire is not going to be a cave full of precious jewels.
At the Lyric Hammersmith, new artistic director Sean Holmes is to be highly commended for staging the venue’s first traditional panto in 30 years. There’s a lot right with Steve Marmion’s production of Jack and the Beanstalk, not least Martyn Ellis as spirited Dame Wendy Windsor, Javier Marzan as lugubrious Spanish cow El Especial and a cracking take on Beyoncé’s Single Ladies.
Nonetheless, having four writers (Richard Bean, Joel Horwood, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Ché Walker) work on one of panto’s slipperiest tales — there’s always too much aimless faffing at the top of the beanstalk — doesn’t make for excess narrative clarity. It doesn’t help, either, that Jack makes almost no impact on his own story.
Both until 9 January. Aladdin: 020 8985 2424. www.hackneyempire.co.uk.
Jack: 0871 22 117 22. www.lyric.co.uk.
