Mama Goose
Proof that the Lyric Hammersmith is basically London’s flagship panto these days comes from the opposite end of London, as Stratford East chalks up its best seasonal show in years, essentially by importing the previous Lyric creative team. Redoubtable composer Robert Hyman is still present and correct, offering a fizzy electropop backdrop to the original songs (the Stratford East panto doesn’t ‘do covers’, although a few snatches of Chappell Roan and Cyndi Lauper in fact make their way in).
But co-writer/directors Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu have turned in a funny, sassy, great-looking production that has a ball with the already very much in-evidence anti-capitalist vibes of traditional panto Mother Goose.
In Mama Goose, the very enjoyable Duane Gooden plays the eponymous dame, an amiable goose-loving old dear who lives a happy life with her gaggle of three geese plus human son Jack (Marcellus Whyte). Unfortunately a swingeing tax is introduced on honking, that sets Mama back £10 every time one of her geese makes a sound. Unable to pay up, her geese are confiscated and she’s left up to her eyeballs in debt.
Cue the arrival of well-intentioned ‘goose fairy’ WTF (The Wholesome Thoughtful Fairy, Ellie Seaton), who seeks to help Mama G out by gifting her Gary the Golden Goose, a bird that lays golden eggs… but only on the condition she doesn’t tell anyone. This turns out to be a terrible plan: it’s basically impossible to conceal a human-sized goose from your own son who...