Last Updated on 16 May 2024 by Colette
This post features gifted experiences
This Christmas sees the traditional panto tale of Aladdin brought to life on stage at St Helens Theatre Royal and it’s their biggest (and quite possibly best) production yet!
“Take a ride on the all-new 3D interactive flying magic carpet ride this Christmas and be whisked off to pantoland where young street urchin Aladdin lives with his hapless brother Wishee Washee and larger-than-life mum Widow Twankey in their family laundry. Then join our young hero as he battles the wicked Abanazer who has a dastardly plan to rule the world with the help of one very special lamp. Can Aladdin save the day – and can he also win the heart of the fair Princess Jasmine?”
We were lucky enough to head over to St Helens Theatre Royal for the press performance of Aladdin – we had planned a full family trip but unfortunately Dave had to work so it was just me and the kids. We’ve seen quite a few pantos at St Helens Theatre Royal over the years and they just seem to get better and better – this year’s Aladdin is no exception. Packed with sequins, silliness and the odd political reference – Regal Entertainment’s Aladdin is everything you would expect from pantomime.
It has to be said that Tim Lucas as the Genie is worthy of your ticket price alone – we’d first seen Tim Lucas in Goldilocks at The Epstein last Christmas and Ben was absolutely thrilled to realise he was going to be in this year’s Aladdin at St Helens Theatre Royal. Our expectations were high – and we were not disappointed. From the minute Tim appeared on stage, painted entirely blue but dressed as a pedlar and having us all do his special dance to “Bamboleo” he had us in stitches! From his crazy range of different voices and accents to his hilarious facial expressions and comedy timing, Tim is an absolute joy to watch.
Now, Lewis Devine is a familiar face at St Helen’s, performing in panto there for at least the last five years. This year he’s bringing his high energy, slapstick humour and cheeky comedy to the role of Wishy Washy – Lewis does an amazing job of getting the audience involved (this was especially impressive last night as the crowd seemed to be really slow to warm up, I think they’d forgotten about the audience participation bit of panto!)
Both Lewis and Tim are incredibly funny actors – but paired together they are next level hilarious. One of my favourite bits of the whole pantomime was when the two of them went off on a bit of a tangent and just lost it laughing at each other before bringing it back to the script and carrying on with the show. Another highlight was an absolutely hilarious dance routine between the two of them when Wishy Washy had asked the Genie to “make him smaller” – I was crying laughing, as were the kids.
Richard Aucott as Window Twanky was everything you’d want from a dame, with her costumes becoming every more outlandish every time she stepped on stage – my personal favourite was her Chinese prawn noodles dress which was just bonkers.
Liam Fox (if you’re an Emmerdale fan you’ll know him as Dan) makes his professional panto debut as bad guy Abanazer at St Helens Theatre Royal this Christmas – and he has that evil laughed nailed!
We left the theatre with full hearts and beaming smiles – watching Ben and Chloe love panto in a whole different way now that they are a bit older feels really special, I think it would be easy for them to be not fussed by it and prefer to stay at home but actually, the panto at St Helens Theatre Royal had them both in stiches with cheeky references to “balls” and Lewis Devine as Wishy Washy continually harassing some poor woman in the audience with his “Curly Wurly”. Chloe nearly cried laughing when they used the recently announced Oxford’s Word of the Year: “Riz” followed up by a “Slay Queen” – both phrases which are commonplace in Chloe’s vernacular!
Panto is such a bonkers British tradition but one that the team at Regal Entertainment have nailed once again at St Helens Theatre Royal this Christmas.
Aladdin runs at St Helens Theatre Royal from Tuesday 5th December 2023 to Sunday 14th January 2024. For more info visit www.sthelenstheatreroyal.com
Photo Credits: David Munn Photography
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