Cross-dressing, 12 costume changes and digs at the Coalition – Key panto is another thriller!
Hurrah – it’s panto time again! (Oh, yes it is!) Last night I joined my daughter’s Rainbow group for the first night of Jack and the Beanstalk at Peterborough’s Key Theatre and had a fabulous time.
There are so many reasons to love the Key’s panto: Michael Cross’s skilled hand on the tiller, the lack of overpaid reality TV or soap stars, the subtle digs at Whittlesey, the sharper pokes of satire, the hot drummer (the joy of sitting in the front row!), the clever reworking of musical favourites and the brilliant dame Patric Kearns (not to mention his incredible costumes and sarky asides to the audience).
Several stalwarts have returned this year, including Adam Patman camping it up as the stupendously dim-witted Simple Simon and acting as a perfect foil to Patric’s less than genteel Trudy Trott.
I don’t want to be unfair to the rest of the hard-working and talented cast, but Patric is the beating heart of the show and is worth the ticket price all on his own.
If you enjoyed his Lady Gaga last year, you’ll love this year’s tribute act (I won’t spoil it for you, come back and ask at the end of the run if you really want to know). Although I do hope the wardrobe mistress takes in the waist of Patric’s trousers before too long. There are some things small children shouldn’t see…
I wish them all well with this year’s run and I’m already looking forward to next year’s offering. Perhaps this is what Wizzard meant when they wished ‘it could be Christmas every day’!
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