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With an excellent Widow Twanky – the ‘T’ is silent – a charming leading Dick, a handsome prince and a wicked, wicked witch, so much about this panto hits the right note. It’s funny, bawdy and has more penis jokes than you could shake a stick at. Featuring Patrick Rufey, he's a very busy man sat behind a gold-fringed piano snd provides all the music and sound effects – think coconut horseshoe steps.
The only person as busy as him is Abigail Carter-Simpson, multitasking in the roles of Babe the Eurovision wannabe, Little Red Riding Hood, One Blind Mouse and everyone else. With a powerful voice, it’s a real shame that ‘everyone else’ includes an incredibly ill-advised/pantomime-ruining genie. If you’ve got no problem with casual racism, then a blonde girl adopting a ‘Chinese’ accent, barking out food orders while narrowing her eyes probably won’t offend you, but it felt, at best, very badly judged. Serving no purpose, it comes from nowhere and leads to nothing. Nobody expects an adult panto to be in good taste, but laughing at minorities crosses an invisible line back into 1970s ‘humour’.
It’s a less-than-charming moment in what could be a brilliantly brash show.