Robin Hood pantomime at Birmingham Hippodrome – review

Birmingham Hippodrome has packed the celebrities into this year’s pantomime with all the lead roles being played by stars of screen and stage. And with most having plenty of experience of riffing off each other, it feels like just about anything could happen at any moment.

Brummie favourite Matt Slack has become synonymous with the Hippodrome panto over the last 12 years and this time he moves into the role of lead man Robin Hood. Matt is co-writer of the show, along with Harry Michaels, and much of its humour revolves around his gags.

He knows the Brummie audiences well, so ensures lots of local references, daft song and dance routines, audience participation (some being more willing than others) and bucketloads of silliness.

This year he is on stage with his mate Gok Wan as Gok Scarlet. The friendship is there for all to see as they make good-natured fun of each other and create chaos. As always, the question is whether the apparent slip-ups are scripted or genuine mishaps?

Faye Tozer gives us a feisty Maid Marion who is ready to fight for right and gives Slack as good as she gets on the repartee. Without a doubt former Steps member Tozer is also a wonderful singer and is given opportunity to remind the audience of this.

It is the first panto for Sandra Marvin and Matt Cardle, both of whom recently played the Hippodrome in the musical & Juliet, but they are in safe hands in this show, directed and choreographed by Karen Bruce.

Cardle’s Sheriff of Nottingham is suitably nasty as he struts around threatening Robin with all kinds of evil fates. So too Marvin is the utterly charming Spirit of Sherwood. The duo’s song battle to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is a high point – especially when it is invaded by a couple of Ghostbusters.

Andrew Ryan also returns as the ever-colourful dame, this time Robin’s mum Henrietta. Flirting with the audience, well one unfortunate guy at least, and sashaying around the stage in costumes which seem to get grander each year, Ryan layers on the slapstick and the double entendres with every flutter of those ridiculously long false eyelashes.

The enigma in the line-up is Christopher Biggins who takes the role of King Richard. Robin Hood fans will remember that the whole point of Richard is that he is away fighting wars elsewhere so it is his absence which is important in the story.

This makes for a conundrum with Biggins. While he is central to the celebrity casting, the truth is that he is actually on stage very little. Furthermore the appearances he makes are somewhat faltering. He has very few lines but seems to be struggling over them. Biggins may be a panto legend, but his placing in this role in this production feels awkward.

Produced by Crossroads Pantomimes, this Robin Hood began life at London’s Palladium last Christmas and, although massively re-written for Birmingham, retains its fabulous sets and many of the costumes. It looks absolutely stunning throughout, with some dramatic special effects not least when a giant wolf is unleashed on the forest.

The production is lavish with the creative team ensuring every scene is full of panto magic. From the opening, which features a parade of historic heroes battling dragons or parading across the stage, through to a series of acrobatics from the Acromaniacs with Slack joining in with typical daftness, the show is like a festive Quality Street tin of different flavours.

Crossroads and the Hippodrome know what the Birmingham audiences want from a pantomime and they rarely fail to deliver. With a show bursting with fun, laughter, song, dance and sparkle, this Robin Hood hits its target.