★★★★
‘THE HOTTEST TICKET
IN TOWN!’

THE STAGE

★★★★
‘JULIAN CLARY IS
A SUPERSTAR TURN!’

THE TIMES

★★★★
‘THE WEST END’S BIG
PANTO IS IRRESISTIBLE’

THE TIMES

★★★★★
‘JAW-DROPPINGLY SPECTACULAR’

MARK SHENTON,
LONDONTHEATRE

★★★★
‘A RIOT OF COLOUR, FUN, CELEBRATION & FESTIVE CHEER!’

ATTITUDE

★★★★
‘VISUALLY RAVISHING…
INFECTIOUSLY FUNNY!’

EVENING STANDARD

Dopey, Happy and Clary

Review: Snow White at the London Palladium, W1

The West End’s big panto is over the top but irresistible says Dominic Maxwell - The Times - ★★★★

This third wildly entertaining Palladium panto is so stuffed with stars (a wicked Dawn French! A filthily funny Julian Clary!) and money-no-object sets and routines (tap-dancing polar bears! Gigantic flying wolves! Nigel Havers in his spangly suit hovering above the stalls!) that it barely even matters that they don’t force the whole Snow White side of things on us too insistently.

I mean, sure, they have hired seven dwarfs, one of whom gets tangled up in a fine slapstick-meets-acrobatics routine, none of whom sings “hi ho!” or any of that Disney stuff. And, yes, they have hired the excellent Danielle Hope to play Snow, but they have given her even less to do than her beau, Prince Harry of Hampstead, played by the equally excellent Charlie Stemp.

Really, though, the story is there to give just enough setting for the show’s variety-night treats. And that’s why I love Palladium pantos. They fling money at the stage, but also expertise, experience, a passion for the job. They have fun, but it never feels as if they are having more fun than we are. Clary’s own shows can’t always keep his shtick scintillating for two full hours. Here, playing the Man in the Mirror — donning a different gorgeously garish costume for each scene, firing out double entendres with single-minded élan, but playing off his co-stars with casual virtuosity — he’s a superstar.

And French? Still feeling her way into the role, but she’s already deploying her comic charisma to fine effect as she gives us the most likeable evil queen in panto history. She milks the boos, has fun in a tongue-twisting set piece — the sort of teasing pleasures that Michael Harrison’s lavishly larky productions are so good at providing — and when she does finally turn properly evil, in a mask, wielding an apple, she has got menace too. She’s a delight.

Showbiz is hard: in any other panto review I might have led on the casual virtuosity of the ventriloquist, Paul Zerdin, the terrific patter song by our Dame, Gary Wilmot, or on the skilfully self-effacing running joke that is Havers: “a poor man’s Jeremy Irons”, as Clary has it. There are two superb, sultry dances from Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, and I’m only just mentioning them now. And the sets! And the chorus choreography!

The perfect panto would tell a slightly tighter story, would guard against the way the in-jokes are starting to take over, would find more funny roles for women. Let’s celebrate what we’ve got, though: a series of irresistible set pieces. It’s an excessive show, certainly, but an excessive amount of fun too.