King’s theatre, Glasgow
Kathryn Rooney’s slick production has flawless comic banter and lavish dance routines, providing impressive festive entertainment
It is tempting to grumble about the supposed spontaneity of this ebullient mainstage panto. Kathryn Rooney’s production is so finely tuned that everything – from the foreign visitors in the box to the late arrivals in the stalls and the onstage collision with a swinging door – is planned and executed with breathless precision.
In one sense this is a shame. If improvisation is genuinely called for, as it is when actor Johnny Mac invites four children on to the stage to sing a variant of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, he is brilliant at it. Unfazed by the unpredictability, he makes his seven-year-old recruits laugh and the audience laugh harder – not necessarily at the same joke. He makes himself seem all the more lovable.
At King’s theatre, Glasgow, until 31 December
