GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Action-packed Aladdin ticks all the Christmas boxes
Show-stealer: Robin Simpson in Aladdin
[Anthony Robling]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
Aladdin
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
ALADDIN could be used as a case study on how to stage a traditional pantomime, especially in the hands of Andrew Pollard, who draws on two decades of experience by packing the script with audience participation, innuendo and slapstick — a farting panda called Ping-Pong features prominently.
Played out on a glittery stage that resembles an outsize Yangtze board game, the show sparkles with enthusiastic choreography and updated musical numbers — Widow Twankey delivers Dolly Parton's hit as Washing 9 to 5 — and there's a spot of impressive illusion as Thomas Cotran's Aladdin takes a ride on a glowing magic carpet to Egypt.
The action brims with the usual topical jokes, including the compulsory ones aimed at Brexit and puns on local reference points. But Pollard's script, his third for Lawrence Batley Theatre, distinguishes itself by updating female characters for modern times.
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