Giving a panto a poor review feels like kicking a puppy, but this Christmas show is the first disappointment — oh, yes it is — in Rachel O’Riordan’s debut season at the Lyric.
The usual plot of Cinderella is here given the traditional accoutrements of bad gags, local references and mangled pop songs, but also a modern topspin. Timmika Ramsay’s cheerful Cinders wants to be an astronomer and isn’t that interested in joining a royal family, which right now feels understandable.
Rhys Taylor’s Fairy Fredbare is more Drag Race outcast than trad dame and there’s a pleasing same-sex romance further down the cast to parallel the central one.
There are also too many references to hashtag culture and Insta-likes. Overall, Tinuke Craig’s production feels desperately unfocused and lacking in character, even from Shobna Gulati’s over-the-top wicked stepmother. The slapstick routines involving would-be influencers the “Snuggly Sisters” are lame. Ramsay, in the lead role, and Gabriel Fleary as Bob the Prince are sweet enough but as two-dimensional as the sets.
To be fair, the schools audience I saw it with didn’t seem to mind any of this. But given that panto is often regarded as the gateway for children to more serious theatre, I really feel they should be offered something higher-grade and less adulterated than this.
Until Jan 5 (020 8741 6850, lyric.co.uk)
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