Pantomime has a curious habit of sidelining its own title characters. Despite their names being splashed across posters and tickets, they’re often overshadowed by the headline stars playing dames, villains and incompetent sidekicks. The hero – and their inevitable love interest – can end up as two-dimensional bit players in their own story.
Not so in Imagine Theatre’s production of Aladdin, in which JG Daniels-White – fresh from Guildford School of Acting and making his Swansea Grand Theatre panto debut – steals the show with an infectiously energetic performance that ticks every box on the panto leading man wishlist: acting, dancing, singing, not to mention the dangling-from-a-wire antics that see him soar on a magic carpet and dazzle in his magical threads. The same goes for Freya Humberstone alongside him, a warm, clear-voiced Princess Jasmine.
Headlining the show is Joe Pasquale as Frankie Mankey, Aladdin’s hapless brother. Returning to the Grand four decades after cutting his panto teeth in the city, the funnyman still has his comic savvy and impeccable timing. He’s joined by Swansea favourite Kev Johns as Dame Mona Mankey, who is on top form as always, knowing exactly how to work the audience and sporting some of his fanciest frocks to date.
Rounding off the leading cast is returning singer Celyn Cartwright, who brings real polish as the Spirit of the Ring, and Andrew Fleming’s villain, who bounces through a grab-bag of impressions, including a fine Tom Jones. The dancers are strong throughout, and so is the music.
Despite all this, the panto gets off to a shaky start. A couple of early gags push the innuendo further than they need to, and the speed of delivery means a few lines and lyrics are lost in the bustle on stage. But once things settle down, notably when Aladdin heads into the cave in search of the lamp, the show sparks into life, setting up one of the best reveals – and most genuinely surprising panto moments – in a long while.
It’s so good it pains me to type it out, but as the secret is already splashed all over social media and the genie is well and truly out of the bottle – sorry, lamp – let me just say that what follows is a spoiler: the genie is a pre-recorded Michael Sheen, with Port Talbot’s finest reciting a little Dylan Thomas, taking a playful dig at David Tennant, and even announcing he’s setting up residency in the theatre with a new company (who, incidentally, open with Our Town in January once panto finishes).
As with the genie, much of the production is computer-generated – giant digital backdrops giving everything a slick, swish gloss, like a larger-than-life computer game – and while the purist in me does occasionally miss the less garish, wobbly sets of days gone by, it is wonderfully well done and adds a real lift to proceedings.
Christmas in Swansea doesn’t really begin until the Grand raises the panto curtain, and once this Aladdin hits its stride it delivers in full. Judging by the reaction around me, the audience agreed. A bright, big-hearted Christmas treat.
Until January 4