Aladdin (Hornchurch, Queen’s Theatre)
Resident repertory companies are thin on the ground nowadays. One such is cut to the chase…, and its particular brand of ensemble playing and musical skills really comes into its own at pantomime time. Nicholas Pegg has written a fairly traditional version of the story of Aladdin, though one with some nice East London/South-East Essex touches, and there’s a catchy original score by Carol Sloman.
Widow Twankey gives Simon Jessop a chance to add substance to an array of different frocks – Mark Walters has produced a succession of fine sets and the costumes to go with them – and keeps the audience laughing. Oliver Seymour-Marsh has a good singing voice as well as the right sort of boyish personality for the title role. The Genie of the Lamp is Steve Simmonds. As well as a well-managed magic carpet ride with the intervention of one of those Chinese dragons to remind us that we’re in China and Tibet, there’s a hilarious chase sequence through the auditorium.