Peter Pan
Theatre Royal Bath
If you are looking for a bit of magic for the festive season, then you won't find more of it anywhere than sprinkled around this year's panto gang at the Theatre Royal.
Largely thanks to Disney, Peter Pan is a new and hugely popular kid on the block for Christmas pantomimes and certainly this production shows just what sort of fun you can have with Peter, the Lost boys, the dastardly Captain Hook and a host of other characters from JM Barrie's seemingly limitless imagination.
But to bring the story up to panto scratch they have had to add a few extra characters that even Mr Barrie never imagined including Governess Gertie – a Norland nannie – who is Chris Harris's vehicle for this year's panto dame. But that doesn't stop Chris from doubling up as a seductive mermaid and even a ship's cook.
Why the story works so well is that it provides great material for a constantly changing landscape with loads of different characters in different places and different situations.
Perhaps a touch slow to start, after Peter and the children are whisked through the sky to fly to a land where dreams come true in a breathtaking rooftop sequence, the pace really never slackens. There are songs, acrobatics, jokes and everything that makes a panto a Christmas treat for anyone who is young in years or at least in heart.
There is a panto dog, a giant rabbit, a crocodile with a taste for anyone from EastEnders and giant water pistols. Now, if you think that even the evil Captain Hook won't fire them out into the auditorium, then you don't know Cliff Parisi. If you have a ticket for the stalls, well, just duck when you see them appear.
Cliff is a great addition to the gang with enough unpleasantness about him to get boos and hisses to raise the theatre roof. But he has a nice line in literary humour too – you're supposed to be dead, Pan – he shrieks as Peter evades the pirate's plan to poison him.
The children from Bath's Dorothy Coleborn School of Dance are always a hit in the Bath panto and this year, of course, there are loads more children, Peter Pan being the story that it is. They are all fabulous and stars in their own right.
On Friday Max Beament and Oliver Prutton joined Joanna Forest playing Wendy to complete the Darling children. They are sharing the roles during the run with Jacob Bishop-Ponte and Haydn May.
But while other panto stars come and go in Bath the eternally youthful Jon Monie is many people's favourite. Here he is the hapless Smee mostly playing the dopey number two to Captain Hook. He just has that happy knack of making you laugh as soon as you see him bounce on to the stage. What more could you ask of a pantomime?
The show, sponsored by The Bath Chronicle runs until mid January.
Christopher Hansford