Dick Whittington

MTS331 FD full cast press image lr

By Tim Saunders
 
“It’s the best pantomime I’ve ever done and that’s in 37 years of doing them,” says comic Bobby Davro, who plays Idle Jack in Dick Whittington at The Mayflower, Southampton.
It is his witty repartee that holds this two-hour show together with some hilarious sketches including the sweetshop scene where he tells a love story using chocolate bars. His impressive memory is twice put to the test while describing wonky donkey and when reciting the countries of the world. There is mention of Brexit on a couple of occasions and Donald Trump doesn’t escape either. “When I Trump it smells,” Bobby retorts.
With fat jokes including “Your buttocks have different postcodes…” and immigration quips such as “he was so slow at cleaning it took him five hours…. He was a Slovak”.
The kangaroo sketch ends up with Bobby collapsing in a heap on the floor, which is where Suzanne Shaw ends up, too. The cast clearly enjoy themselves, which is infectious.
A somewhat weak story line is strengthened by performances from scary Steve Mcfadden, Andrew Ryan who plays an excellent dame, Joe McElderry, Sheila Ferguson and Suzanne Shaw. Engaging songs, audience participation, lots of laughs, fantastic dancing and there are plenty of mesmerising costumes especially from Andrew Ryan, who wears the most extravagant attire. He says how he could wear booby traps for the rats…
Special effects include a large scary rat at the beginning and a flying red London bus, which dazzles my son Henry (2). But the music is just too loud for my wife and little ones.   
Clever lighting ends the show with Dick’s cat seeming to vanish into thin air, which makes the children go “Wow”.
On until January 6, 2019.
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