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If you’re looking for a traditional panto, Wilton’s Music Hall’s ‘Mother Goose’ is a solid choice - and not only because the venue is the oldest surviving grand music hall in the world.
Like Wilton’s 2015 take on ‘Dick Whittington and his Cat’, this year’s show is also written by Roy Hudd. He’s a veteran on the panto scene and appears as dame and lead role Mother Goose. The performance follows the kind-hearted older woman as she adopts a goose that lays golden eggs. The decision leaves her lured in by money and beaut, meaning that, of course, she’s heading towards her comeuppance. Although – call me a vain millennial – I actually don’t blame her for getting obsessed with her looks, since the rest of the cast call her ugly all the time. Mother Goose’s struggle is presented via two spirits: Virtue (played as being all sugar and spice) and the camp, swaggering, scene-stealing Vanity.
The best scenes were the silliest: a performance of ‘Twelve days of Christmas’ performed at ever-increasing pace inevitably went awry with comical consequences, and some heckling from the crowd spiced things up. The dance routines were strong – especially a saucy number that started with three female dancers in skimpy outfits (so far, so everyday sexism). But then they were joined – in a woke twist – by two lads in bondage gear. The jokes weren’t quite as spicy. While there were some Brexit and Trump mentions, Hudd’s dame mainly kept her humour traditional, i.e jokes about pulling her knickers up. All in all, this panto’s a good egg but it’s probably more bronze than gold.