★★★★★

“This is the only panto you’ll ever need. It’s the festive season in a nutshell.”

If you are a pantomime completist, you can easily knock off a handy six – or is it seven? – in one night at Wilton’s Music Hall and have a fabulous time doing so.

The comic duo of Dan and Jeff bring their quick-fire Potted Panto back to the gorgeously distressed venue cramming in the festive cheer with the pluck and ingenuity of a turkey stuffer faced with a big bag of giblets.

In goes Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Here comes a whistlestop Jack and the Beanstalk and an abbreviated Snow White. The pair – aided and abetted by costume changes, cut corners, puppets and belly laughs – rattle through the traditional canon in a slick and practised 80 minutes, and that includes fast and furious recaps.

Daniel Clarkson and Jeff Turner are good at this. Really good. They’ve been “potting” works since 2005 beginning with Harry Potter (Potted Potter, geddit?) and moving on to pirates and Sherlock Holmes. Potted Panto was first shown at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010 and transferred to the West End where it was Olivier nominated. The show arrived at Wilton’s last year and looks like becoming a regular fixture – with tickets selling fast. This is nothing but good news. It deserves to become an East End tradition.

At times the cheerful conspiratorial exuberance tips over from stage show to party time, with the fourth wall not just broken but blown up. That accounts for the enthusiastic embrace for the “3D” section where everyone joins in a rambunctious carriage chase through a haunted forest.

There’s topical stuff for the adults – Donald Trump, Gregg Wallace – and enough wee-wee and poo gags to have the kids slamming their hands to their mouths in naughty giggles.

Dan Clarkson, the tall one, plays the part of the cheeky troublemaker with puckish glee, while harassed Jeff, the short one, tries to keep the whole show on the road. Co-writer Richard Hurst also directs and manages to co-ordinate chaos to such an effective degree he should run for government.

All this is helped immeasurably by the special magic of Wilton’s. With its echoes of Dickensian Christmases Past, especially with Tiny Tim limping across the stage, the whole place has the cosiness and irrepressible delight of those childhood December nights that were almost too exciting to bear.

Remember, if any other Christmas show offers you just the one storyline, you’ve been short-changed. This is the only panto you’ll ever need.

It’s the festive season in a nutshell.

WHITE CHRISTMAS

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“There is a simplicity to the evening that allows the storytelling and the inherent values of its message shine through”

The rain is falling from a dark, wintry sky and storm Darragh is rumbling away in the near distance heralding its arrival across the home counties. But down at the Mill at Sonning, tucked away in a nook by the river, one’s dreams of a White Christmas are being granted – if only for a few hours. Step over the threshold and you are indeed stepping right into the festive season. Just like the ones we used to know.

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen the Crosby and Kaye movie over the years, Jonathan O’Boyle’s revival of the stage version is as fresh as it is familiar. Jason Kajdi and Connor Hughes as Bob Wallace and Phil Davies – the former WWII soldiers turned celebrity double-act – share the same infectious camaraderie as Bing and Danny, but with a more youthful, wide-eyed approach to the world around them. Their bond is a prime example of ‘opposites attract’. Hughes’ Phil cannot get enough of the fairer sex (are you allowed to use that term these days?) while Kajdi steers his character away from love like sheltering from the “unpredictable, irresponsible, unbelievable, unreliable” weather.

The plot, slim as it is, and characterisation (rich as it is) come across with clarity through the fine voices of the cast. The duo recruit sisters, Betty and Judy (Gabriella Williams and Nic Myers), into their act, sweeping the four of them into a tangled romance that forms the backbone of the comedy. They end up in Vermont, New York, at a Christmas holiday lodge run by their old Major General from the army (Mark Curry). The former general sank his life savings into the inn but has fallen on hard times as the lack of snow is keeping his customers away. Hatching a plan to save his business, and restore his self-esteem, Bob and Phil trigger a series of misunderstandings and near break-ups with the girls before realisation and reconciliation comes to the rescue. You get the idea. O’Boyle’s trim and elegant staging will give you a much better idea.

There is a simplicity to the evening that allows the storytelling and the inherent values of its message shine through. Jason Denvir’s uncluttered sets, with David Howe’s lighting are all about atmosphere. This is a show that creates moods rather than spectacle and is all the more heart-warming for these choices. As the sister act, Williams and Myers match the boys’ chemistry, exemplified in the iconic number ‘Sisters’ (also beautifully and hilariously parodied by Bob and Phil). Irving Berlin’s music and lyrics are served well by the core cast and the ensemble who handle the dynamics of the score with ease, from the razzmatazz to the intimate. An unseen seven-piece band perfectly follows – and leads – the highs and lows of Berlin’s melodies and lyricism. All the favourites are all there: ‘Happy Holiday’, Love and the Weather’, ‘The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing’, ‘I Love a Piano’… and so on. A star turn by Shirley Jameson as Martha, the holiday inn’s housekeeper, lifts her solo number ‘Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun’ into one of the highlights.

The production is in no rush, and the first act shows tentative signs of outstaying its welcome. However, we are in no rush at all for the evening to reach its sugar-coated but deliciously festive and heart-warming finale. We are too busy being drawn into the comfort and joy of the performances. There are no surprises. We know exactly what’s beneath the wrapping. But it is all we could have wished for. It may still be raining outside, but inside the Mill at Sonning it is snowing. Our dreams of a White Christmas have come true indeed. The show is a dream.

Tag Archives: Recommended Show

POTTED PANTO

★★★★★

Wilton’s Music Hall

POTTED PANTO

Wilton’s Music Hall

★★★★★

“This is the only panto you’ll ever need. It’s the festive season in a nutshell.”

POTTED PANTO at Wilton’s Music Hall

Reviewed on 6th December 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Geraint Lewis

Previous Potted Panto reviews:

POTTED PANTO | ★★★★★ | WILTON’S MUSIC HALL | December 2023

POTTED PANTO | ★★★★★ | APOLLO THEATRE | December 2022

POTTED PANTO

POTTED PANTO

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

WHITE CHRISTMAS

★★★★

The Mill at Sonning

WHITE CHRISTMAS

The Mill at Sonning

★★★★

“There is a simplicity to the evening that allows the storytelling and the inherent values of its message shine through”

WHITE CHRISTMAS at The Mill at Sonning

Reviewed on 6th December 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

BEDROOM FARCE | ★★★★ | August 2024

THREE MEN IN A BOAT | ★★★ | June 2024

CALENDAR GIRLS | ★★★★ | April 2024

HIGH SOCIETY | ★★★★ | December 2023

IT’S HER TURN NOW | ★★★ | October 2023

GYPSY | ★★★★★ | June 2023

TOP HAT | ★★★★ | November 2022

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK | ★★★★ | July 2022

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KeyPhrase

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