Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker, Wilton’s Music Hall - theatre review

With its raucous mix of story, comedy, song, dance, satire and banter between stage and audience, panto is the last mainstream outlet for the British music-hall tradition. The only problem is that it has to be kept family-friendly. Well, that’s not a concern for Mrs Hudson’s Christmas Corker, a Sherlock Holmes-themed festive entertainment concocted for Wilton’s Music Hall by the superb physical comedy troupe Spymonkey and writers Bob and Barry Cryer (the latter a longstanding music-hall aficionado).

The show delivers the giddy pleasures of panto while also being rude and shamelessly tasteless.

Mrs Hudson’s Baker Street flat is the nominal setting for three tales: two loose riffs on Conan Doyle and a very irreverent take on the nativity story. These revolve around Toby Park’s sanguine Holmes, Aitor Basauri’s chippy Watson, Sophie Russell’s long-suffering Mrs Hudson and her neighbour, Petra Massey’s daffy Mrs Hayley. As per Spymonkey tradition, however, the cast all play multiple roles, from Karl Marx to Oscar Wilde, Fu Manchu and a dodgy spiritualist. Despite a knee injury, Massey steals the show as a wiseguy Herod and amorous archangel Gabriel.

“Historically accurate it certainly ain’t,” as one song superfluously notes. Nor is it tight storytelling. And, if we’re quibbling, both the Jack the Ripper singalong and the Elephant Man’s impressionist routine go on a bit. But none of that matters in a production of such irresistible absurdity, all kept rolling along by Ed Gaughan’s direction and Ross Hughes, Magnus Mehta and Marcus Penrose’s live music. The fact that the whole thing suits Wilton’s so perfectly is the brandy on the pudding.

Until Dec 31 wiltons.org.uk