What do you look for when deciding on an adult panto to take your dirty-minded gaggle of pals or stressed out work colleagues to over the Christmas period? For me, it must be super-witty, well written, effortlessly funny, flamboyant, coated in layers upon layers of smutty innuendo, with engaging and confidently performed musical numbers, and of course a cast that gels and enjoys all the fun the panto experience brings.Â
By Jason Reid
A Lad In Tights hits the mark with a few of those requirements but with others it sadly skirts the outer rim. Set in the function room of a beautiful bar in Drury Lane, the show packs in a good dozen high-energy sing-along numbers. It’s a shame the sound was really not up to scratch on this particular night. Something I’m sure can be easily rectified. The cast are enthusiastic and animated throughout. However, one of my biggest bugbears when seeing any show is pressured audience participation, especially when it is taken to the extreme. Let your audience enjoy the experience and relax. If they want to clap, sing, holler or even throw their bras in the air, they will. At times it felt relentless.
The cast themselves, on the whole, are a fine set of performers. Taking the lead role in her first West End show, Stephanie Von Clitz plays the hapless Aladdin with the perfect amount of cutesy buoyancy needed for the part. Widow Twankey (Joe Meloy) adds the greatest comedy element (especially during improvised sections) and has a good feel for his audience. Wishee Washee (Henry Collie) excels in this area too and is a crowd favourite, with his endearing Irish charm and onstage elasticity. And Princess Nyphomaniac’s (Simon Gross) comedy grossness and extravagant presence fills the room.
As a stand-alone panto it’s fairly good, but as an ‘adult’ panto it needs vamping-up. A few tweaks and an injection of a few observational clever gags would sort this. But then again it is panto, after all, and not Shakespeare. One thing it does excel in is that this is, however, VERY camp! And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
• A Lad In Tights, The Prince of Wales, 150 Drury Lane, WC2Â
Runs to 4th January
