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:

16 December 2004

The Old Vic’s production of Aladdin was given a relatively affectionate welcome last year, thanks largely due to the surprise of finding Ian McKellen, at last, in panto guise and disguises. But instead of improving a year on, with the benefits of what was learnt last year about what worked and not worked (and I’m pleased to say that what I referred to as a “thunderously unfunny decorating scene” has been dropped), it has also been coarsened into something at once more grating and frequently rather too ribald.

This is now not so much a panto at the Old Vic as one at the Queen Vic, with the emphasis on the queens: instead of being a good family panto with strong inter-generational appeal, it rapidly descends into a relentless barrage of strenuous sexual innuendo, with lines like Widow Twankey’s “I’m going to butter my buns and slip into something tight” that wouldn’t go amiss from a bad drag act in a south London pub.

The tumbling, acrobatic policeme...

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Latest User Review

81.149.169.28) - 16 December 2006:

excellent show, really stays in my mind. the aladdin and widow twankey were awsome!!...

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