Review: ALADDIN, Lyric Hammersmith, 26 November 2016

The Lyric's pantomime is old school, inasmuch as the cast are all actors rather than soap or reality TV stars and the story is an orthodox take a traditional tale with writer, Joel Horwood, finding room for a patter song and plenty of audience participation. The absence of gimmicks didn't make much difference to the kids (young and old) who were happily "Behind You"ing and wolf-whistling, as kids have done since the theatre opened in 1895. In an age of inactivity and augmented reality, the old ways still work.

Baseball-capped Karl Queensborough is a pleasingly bland everyman for the kids to identify with and for the heroes and villains to play off. Vikki Stone looks a bit like she's on her way to cover in Wicked as Abanazer, but gets the scary and the stupid balance just right to frighten the youngsters, stopping well short of inducing nightmares. Arthur McBain does his chummy stuff as Wishy Washy engagingly in the role most obviously played for the kids and Malinda Parris's genie sings like a diva with a live band and plenty of familiar tunes reworked for the tale.

For the grown-ups, The Dame - with licence to deliver double entendres - makes our fun in a panto. James Doherty is suitably garbed in outrageous dresses and magnificently, incongruously tall, as a Dame should be, and gets a few topical barbs in between the quick-fire puns and putdowns. As the run progresses, I'd expect more ad libs and a slightly looser approach to develop between the cast - corpsing in panto is never a bad thing!

With a second half wow moment (for those who haven't seen it before) provided by the magic carpet ride, this year's Lyric panto has all the elements needed to deliver solid, if predictable, family fare in Hammersmith. Aladdin hasn't got the biggest budget in town, but doesn't charge the highest prices either - and few venues can compete with the external comforts provided by this refurbished Matcham theatre, convenient for bus and Tube, that does so much to reach out to its local community.

Aladdin continues at the Lyric Hammersmith until 7 January.