By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 25 November, runs through 7 January 2024 RUNTIME: 130 minutes (with a 20-minute interval)

‘Mirror, mirror on the wall – where is the greatest panto of them all?’

• Read on for reasons including why the Greenwich Theatre pantomime is the UK’s best

Vanity? Our 1st exposure to theatre was annual visits to pantomimes at Aldershot’s Princes Hall in the 70s and we’ve been visiting them ever since including in Exeter, Portsmouth, London’s West End and, since Red Riding Hood in 2015, at the theatre most local to us, Greenwich Theatre.

This year Anthony Spargo returns for his 12th appearance as the villain and his 2nd as the pantomime’s author, this year of Snow White.

Last year’s show was Robin Hood and this year Katie Tonkinson gives us a feisty Snow White with real agency who gets to sing Taylor Swift’s Anti Hero and really shines when she is with the puppet dwarves in their woodland home.

Spargo’s scripts are characterised by the rapid-fire nature of the humour meaning you are never too far away from a joke (sample gag: ‘Why did you sell the Hoover?’ ‘It was just collecting dust.’)

Also returning are Martin Johnston as Herman The Huntsman who gives us a memorable character journey and jester Louise Cielecki as Muddles who has her own share of the best lines as she enters the stage each time with a highkick and a call and response catchphrase to her ‘Who wants a Muddles cuddle?’

New cast members include Tom Bales (La Cage Aux Folles, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) as Prince Charming of Charmington who dances memorably and adorably with our hero during Frozen‘s brilliant Love Is An Open Door and DeeArna McLean as the Magic Mirror who gave us AI chills.

For the parents there’s much below the family-friendly surface to dwell upon should it take your fancy including how Snow White’s homeless plight has refugee parallels as well as the more obvious universal truth of the importance of kindness and friends.

One of the joys of this panto is the variety of music on offer played by band ‘Uncle’ Steve Markwick, Gordon Parrish (‘the Brian May of Greenwich’), both onstage, and offstage drummer Chris Wyles.

Spargo plays cross-dressing baddie Queen Narcissus and has lots of fun performing unexpected rock songs including Alice Cooper’s Poison and Queen’s Killer Queen as well as flirting and riffing with the male members of the audience (sample lines: ‘Where do you come from Big Rob?’ ‘Romford.’ ‘Sorry …’ ‘Romford.’ ‘I heard you the 1st time, I was just apologising.’)

When we saw the Greenwich Theatre panto for the 1st time in 2015 we said: ‘The UK’s best panto? Oh yes it is!’ And we still think that’s true almost a decade later.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Greenwich Theatre Tickets
• Have you ever been to the Greenwich Theatre or seen a pantomime before?
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