Review: Aladdin, at Newark Palace Theatre, ticks all the boxes for a perfect pantomime
Cheeky gags, check. Fabulous song and dance numbers, check. Audience participation, check. Dastardly villains and brave heroes, check.
Newark Palace Theatre’s hilarious 2024/2025 panto, Aladdin, ticks all the boxes for what makes a perfect pantomime, and will be performed at Newark Palace Theatre until New Year’s Eve, December 31. Visit https://www.palacenewark.com/ for tickets
Stealing the show with their excellent comic timing were Phil Stewart and Danny Childs as Widow Twanky and Wishee respectively. Phil was glorious as the dame with plenty of cheeky jokes and embraced the over-the-top spirit of the dame, and his banter and asides to Wishee were hilarious, especially the laundry related gags.
There’s a fine line when playing physical comedy between being silly and too over-the-top, but Danny struck the balance perfectly and his washing scene with hapless policeman PC World (Paul O’Neil) had everyone in stitches.
The aforementioned policeman provided plenty of laughs at his buffoonery and his washing scene with Wishee brought the house down.
Our two genies were both equally fabulous in their own special ways — Koko Alexandra brought a wonderful amount of heart and sass as the Genie of the Ring, and the twinkle-toed Miguel Angel was brilliantly flamboyant as the Genie of the Lamp, performing a medley of Latin songs as a nod to his Puerto Rican heritage.
Our smitten hero Aladdin, played by Emma Marsh, brought such charm and warmth to the character who wants so much to save his family’s laundry business as well as winning the heart of the Princess, and Emma’s vocals were incredibly impressive.
Princess Jasmine, played by Giannine Tan, was stunning as our leading lady with electric chemistry with Aladdin and also possessing brilliant vocals.
Bringing our baddie to life was Alex Scott Fairley as Abanazaar, who was brilliantly dastardly as the power-hungry sorcerer and drew plenty of boos and jeers.
Audiences will love the local references to Newark — and the not-so-subtle digs at the rival pantomime in Grantham — and the Wicked-inspired magic carpet scene was absolutely stunning.
Pantomimes don’t tend to take themselves too seriously, and Aladdin has plenty of tongue-in-cheek digs at typical panto tropes — Abanazaar telling off Jasmine for stealing his thunder during his one and only solo song was particularly amusing, as were the jokes about Aladdin not being very “manly”.
A special mention must go to the Young Company who brought plenty of energy and slick dancing to their scenes.
For the perfect show to kick-start your Christmas, you can’t go wrong with Aladdin — I can’t recommend it highly enough.
