Nottingham Theatre Royal – until Sunday 12 January 2025
Reviewed by Amy V Gathercole
3***
“Festive fun with some mayhem!”
This year’s panto at TRCH is flying off on a swashbuckling adventure to Neverland with Peter Pan and his friends.
The colourful and lively production is full of larger-than-life sets, with tons of bright colours and glitter found in the scenery and embellishing the array of imaginative costumes. It brings the well-known tale of the boy who wouldn’t grow up to life in a new way, with a vibrant mix of humour and music – with a sprinkle of magical pixie dust.
It’s around a decade since I’ve been to a panto and they’ve still got all the staples running in them. Funny celebs, double entendres galore and lots of classic audience participation from the classic ‘ Oh no he isn’t’ type lines to greeting certain cast members as they appear on stage, right through to parents being welcomed on stage to take part in embarrassing skits.
Taking a bit of a diversion from having a classic dame and instead here, much of the comedy comes from two of Captain Hook’s crew – Starkey (Paul Chuckle) and Smee (Steve Hewlett).
Steve and his ventriloquist act were the highlight of this panto for me, his timing was great, he really knows how to engage the audience – both old and young alike and he played off the other characters and actors brilliantly. There is one particular section where he and the Magical Merman play a dating game gag and musical cues and songs with Steve’s timing are just perfectly matched.
Loosely following the JM Barrie classic of Peter Pan and Disney favourite with familiar characters such as Peter Pan (Aiden Carson, his magical sidekick Tinker Bell (Kate Stewart) and the 3 Darling children – Wendy (Molly Farmer) and her brothers John (Matthew Allen) and Michael (Harley Butler).
Nottingham’s own Richard Windsor plays Captain Hook, taking on the role with gusto as the audience loudly boos and hisses as he arrives on stage and he clearly takes great pleasure in his dastardly villain role.
The role of the fabulous and fashionable Magical Merman is being played by Gok Wan, however, on this opening weekend the role was filled by the director and choreographer of the show, Alan Burkitt, as Gok was sadly ill. Alan did a great job as ‘the twin brother’ and the nature of the quick change actually added to the mayhem of the show.
The script was fun and as often goes with live theatre of this type, lines were occasionally missed and fluffed, but the team of professionals covered everything (mainly) in character and with support from the audience.
You’ll leave with a smile on your face, but there’s certainly more for older kids than the little ones here, as there’s a lot of adult content in the show, possibly a bit too much?
Musical numbers feature throughout , including new takes on catchy tunes like Taylor Swift’s popular Shake it Off. The ensemble cast’s performances left the audience tapping their feet and clapping along.
This year’s high-flying panto is in Nottingham until Sunday 12 January, letting you keep the magic running into the new year.
This year’s high-flying panto is in Nottingham until Sun 12 Jan, letting you keep the magic running into the new year.
You can secure tickets here https://trch.co.uk/whats-on/peter-pan/