Review by: Paul Towers, 11 January 2018
Dick Whittington by Alan McHugh with additional material
by Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin and David McGillivray with original songs by Gary
Hind
A Qdos Entertainment production
London Palladium – Sat 9th December 2017 –
Sunday 14th January 2018
“an amazing stellar cast”
Finally, a Really Useful Group theatre that feels as though
its refurb has actually been completed. This, the jewel in not only RUG’s crown
but that of all of London’s theatreland, is lavishly decorated in the Matcham
style as it was he that remodelled it in the early 1900’s. The reception areas
are a luxurious welcome into the home of London variety throughout the years.
As the building was originally built to house a circus the public areas do come
across as a bit of a maze with some very odd features round sundry corners.
However, every wall is covered with posters and playbills from the past
illustrating the wide range of shows and acts that have appeared over the
years.
I arrived about 30 minutes early to collect my ticket and
was ushered through security and the ticket desk without pause.
The auditorium of The Palladium, familiar to so many of us
from numerous TV appearances, is vast. 2,286 seats are spread over 3 levels and
virtually every seat has an unimpeded view of the stage.
Dick Whittington is the second year pantomime has been back at
the Palladium after a gap of 30 years.
To say that money has been spent on this production is like
saying that Greenland is a little cool.
To start off there is an amazing stellar cast including
Julian Clary, Elaine Paige, Paul Zerdin, Nigel Havers, Gary Wilmot, Charlie
Stemp and Diversity. As if that is not enough the set is mind bogglingly extravagant
with huge set pieces, animatronic rats, pyrotechnics galore, a send up of
Titatnic and even a flying London bus for no other reason than they can! On top
of this there are the costumes, acres of sequins, silver lame and feathers. And
that’s only for one scene. Outdoing every outfit on the stage is the awesome
Julian Clary whose costumes as The Spirit of The Bells changed every time he
made an entrance and got more and more over the top on each change until he was
almost filling the stage on his own. Not to be outdone, his co-star Elaine
Paige as Queen Rat flashed a shapely leg in a glittering black ensemble as she
swished around the stage in high dudgeon giving all and sundry evils and threatening
to take over London. Charlie Stemp, fresh from his career making stint in Half
A Sixpence, made a very likeable Dick. The main cast was bulked out with Dame Gary
Wilmot as Sarah Fitzwarren, Paul Zerdin (and Sam) as Idle Jack and Nigel Havers
as Captain Nigel, surplus to requirements most of the time but the butt of endless
jokes.
Ashley Banjo’s Diversity provided most of the dancing
required and a large ensemble filled the rest of the stage.
A friend of mine had been to see the show twice so we
compared notes of the various bits of ‘business’ we had noticed and every
single fluffed line, every missed cue, every dropped prop and every ad lib was
very carefully and precisely scripted so as to wring every single laugh out of
an outrageous script. Julian Clary had been given free reign to write his own
lines and his brand of entendre (rarely doubled) was visible at every turn.
When it came to songs Elaine Paige was well served with a
whole slew of parodied Andrew Lloyd Webber classics from her back catalogue, even
if Clary cut her off sharply after just one line sometimes. Charlie Stemp was
also honoured with a mash up of his signature song, Flash Bang Wallop from Half
A Sixpence.
So, was this traditional pantomime for the kiddies? Not
really although I am sure most of the smut would go over the heads of the average
under 12’s In truth this is more a show for the grown-ups. On the matinee I visited
the largely OAP members laughed their heads of before climbing back on their
coaches to the provinces, Tena Lady’s a timely precaution.
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