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VENUE
AND BOOKING DETAILS:
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Young
Vic
The Cut SE1
020 7928 6363
tube:
Waterloo/ Southwark
Thur - Sat 7.30pm, Thur, Sat &
Mon Mats 2pm, Tue Mat 2.30pm
£19, £9.50 concs, £12.50 over 60s
Booking to 26 Jan
Web:
Young Vic
(The BBC is not responsible
for the content of external websites)
Richmond Theatre
The Green, Richmond, Surrey
020 8940 0088
tube/
rail: Richmond
Tues 14 7pm, Wed & Thur 2pm & 7pm, Fri 7pm, Sat
18 2pm & 7pm, Sun 19 1.30pm & 5.30pm
£10.50 - £17.50
Booking to 19 Jan
Web:
Richmond
Theatre
Theatre
Royal Stratford
Gerry
Raffles Square, Stratford E15
020 8534 0310
tube/ rail: Stratford & DLR
Wed - Sat 2.15pm & 7.15pm, Tue 2.15pm
£7 - £16
Booking to 26 Jan
Web:
Theatre
Royal Stratford
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Christmas
may now be over, but the shows still linger a few weeks longer.
This
year they've also been an eclectic bunch: I've seen everything from
a scarily dark version of Sleeping Beauty (complete with
cannibalism) to an adult re-write of A Christmas Carol, entitled
It's Christmas, Carol! (complete with transvestism - but
then what panto isn't? - though this one's not for kids). Add in
two Peter Pans and one Jack and the Beanstalk, and
we're cooking.
The
Young Vic is known for going off-the-wall and against-the-grain
of 'traditional' Christmas entertainments, providing a more dangerous
edge to its storytelling.
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| A
kiss is not merely a kiss: Sleeping Beauty at the Young
Vic |
Director
Rufus Norris has taken Perrault's 17th century classic,
Sleeping Beauty (running to 26 Jan), about a comatose princess
awoken from a 16-year sleeping curse by the kiss of a handsome prince
- and added the spectre of farting fairies and vomiting ogresses.
That
much satisfies the 'squeal' factor that the Young Vic's shows regularly
indulge in their youthful audiences; but things get complicated
as it seeks to replay both what Hollywood usually terms the 'back'
story (of how Beauty came to be asleep) but also the 'forward' story
of what happens after she's awakened.
But
by the time the show has become a rewrite of Shakespeare's Titus
Andronicus, maybe it has gone a touch too far.
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While
Peter Pan is, of course, a dark story of a boy who
refuses to grow up, two completely different versions in London
fail to get its measure.
 An
overly serious new musical at the Royal Festival Hall (to
12 Jan) misses the enchantment, and clumsily has to employ
a narrator (Susannah York, prowling decorously around
the stage and reading from a script) to tell the story, whereas
the action should be showing it.
Disney-esque songs by George Stiles and Anthony
Drewe have some charm, and the use of projections in lieu
of design is occasionally innovative, but the first act flying
sequence is risible.
At least you get real flying in the panto version at Richmond
Theatre (to 19 Jan) - all that, and Bonnie Langford's
perfect legs as she continues in the title role that she has
been playing, in one version or another, at least since 1985.
She's
always good value, and really does work the audience; pity
that the rest of a lame, tacky production doesn't keep up
with her.
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| Bean
feast: Jack and the Beanstalk at Stratford East |
For
genuine panto pleasure, head instead to Stratford East's Theatre
Royal, where Jack and the Beanstalk (to 25 Jan) is presented
with wit, scenic imagination (the giant ogres on stilts are as scary
as they are impressive) and a genuine collaborative spirit between
the stage and the audience.
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