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REVIEW: ALADDIN
The Bristol Hippodrome, Until Sun 7 Jan
The pleasant murmur of families settling into their seats in The Hippodrome auditorium is interrupted by an explosion of lights and effects. We all pay attention with a jolt as we’re introduced to a cast of time-honoured characters who somehow span ancient Egypt and Old Peking in the days when flying carpets made up for a lack of conventional intercontinental flight. This show starts as it means to go on with technology centre stage, upstage, downstage, underneath the stage and reaching out beyond the stage into the hall itself.
Marti Pellow, the voice of Wet Wet Wet, is the grasping Abanazar, intent on hunting down Aladdin (Alexis Gerred), named as the holder of magical powers but in reality the guileless son of a Peking washerwoman Widow Twankey (David Robbins). Our hero’s only interest is his highly risky pursuit of the hand of Princess Jasmine (Hayley Tamaddon) in marriage. Pellow is aloof and menacing and has possibly the best tune of all in a tune he penned with music director Grant Mitchell, ‘Why Does No One Care’, although that’s matched by Widow Twankey’s hilarious version of Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Bang Bang’.
The show pivots around the buffoonery of Joe Pasquale (pictured) as Wishee Washee, the traditional master of ceremonies who inserts himself into every ludicrous twist in the story, including the burgeoning romance between Aladdin and Jasmine.
You may well notice a reduced cast for the big song and dance numbers, more than compensated for by a series of effects. A giant creatures King Kong figure opens the show, while Aladdin and his colleagues board a flying carpet that dives and turns upside down before reaching its destination in by the Pyramids. Then there’s the much anticipated 3D sequence featuring every terrifying creature lurking in everyone’s subconscious, from scorpions and rats through to mummies and lizards . . . not to mention a truly awesome animatronic serpent in the climactic scene.
Online comments have complained about the humour being over bawdy, while some scenes are too frightening. For this family, anything risqué was in the tradition of British end-of-the pier slapstick, although the 3D sequence, while breathtaking, might well be too much for younger children. The two seven-year-olds in our party certainly found it scary, but thrilling too. In all, this is a fantastic, modern take on the traditional panto, with plenty of star quality thrown in for good measure. (Mike Gartside)