REVIEW: Pantoland at the London Palladium

The London Palladium has always been the West End home of variety and for a while as the posters on the proscenium arch remind us for a while was the leading venue for Panto too. This year they celebrate both British entertainment genres in a tailor-made show Pantoland at the Palladium. In recent years Michael Harrison has produced some spectacular pantomimes excelling in staging, special effects, costumes and choreography and versions of these productions now spend Christmas at the largest regional venues.

This show was designed as a one-off in 2020 but when it was cut short early by covid restrictions it became inevitable that it would return this year with some cast availability modifications. Indeed, those upgrade the show into a joyous uplifting celebration of the venue with Donny Osmond headlining and reminiscing about a royal variety show there some fifty years ago and the gorgeous high kicking Tiller Girls being reformed to grace the stage again. It is NOT a Pantomime but a celebration of some of the elements that are included in Pantomime and is billed as a “Feel-good spectacular”.

PANTOMIME REVIEW: Dick Whittington at the London Palladium

Last year Cinderella at the London Palladium raised the bar on the scale and production values invested in Christmas Pantomime in a way that few venues could compete with and set the challenge for Michael Harrison in directing this year production of Dick Whittington. 

  

You can literally see the time and effort invested in this year's show to make it feel bigger and better than last year with nine principles in the cast, twelve in the band and an ensemble of twenty two, all dressed in sumptuous costumes throughout by Ron Briggs with spectacular effects.

The Twins FX team create the huge special effects that are a signature of Qdos pantomimes and this show opens with a ridiculous over the top string of London buses carrying the shows title and then sets the tale in context with a giant rat voiced by last year's star Paul O'Grady. You can imagine someone challenging them to be bigger this year and suggesting flying a London double bus over the audience which they duly oblige at the end of act 1.

REVIEW: Le Grand Mort at Trafalgar Studios

Like the fragrant pasta alla puttanesca that Michael (Julian Clary) cooks from scratch on stage, Le Grand Mort is a mixture of flavoursome ingredients, whose unbalanced combination could easily result in a stodgy meal. With its graphic elements and piquant frontal nudes, this rich recipe of sex, religion and death might not appeal to the most delicate palates but it does indeed cater for seasoned punters who crave for some zest.

With a relevant change in lighting, the intimate Trafalgar Studio Two alternates between the bar where Michael and Tim (James Nelson-Joyce) first meet and the former's kitchen, where he prepares a delicious dinner for two. Whilst cooking – as if talking to himself – he mentions a series of famous characters whose passing has been enveloped in such a plethora of anecdotes to generate a sort of pornography of death. Marilyn Monroe, Lady Diana and Rasputin are amongst the names mentioned, whilst Christ on the cross is described as a huge phallic symbol. As in this case, the mix is often disturbing and the words inevitably take centre stage in a piece where the action feels manufactured and patchy.