Aladdin

Synopsis

The Pantomime story of Aladdin and the magic lamp. Widow Twankey, her no-good son Wishee Washee and the Chinese laundry usually provide the slapstick.

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 30 November 2010

You don’t need a large cast to stage a pantomime, provided that the sets and costumes look lavish and that the story progresses sufficiently briskly and with some unusual twists to keep the audience, whatever its age range, focussed. Watford has made a virtue out of a degree of financial necessity with this year’s production of Aladdin. What’s more, Jack and the Beanstalk is already announced for the 2011 Christmas season.

The days when Abanazar was an out-and-out Middle Eastern villain are perhaps numbered. Instead writers Joanna Read and Stuart Thomas have made him a recession-hit banker. Peter Holdway, who knows how to put over a number even when the audience is cheerfully booing his character, revels in the part. Our hero is Craig Fletcher, whose Aladdin has a neat line in inventions – including a lie-detector, and he’s matched by a high-kicking Jasmine (Frances McNamee), very much a self-assured (not to say self-willed) 2...

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