Adapted by Alan McHugh

Additional Material by Elaine C Smith and Johnny Mac

Review by Dominic Corr

Tickets from £13.00

Sixty years of the King’s Pantomime. A feat and a testament to the draw of the Scottish panto – armed with a fiercely loyal and vocal crowd who bring their top game to the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, for the official opening night of Peter Pan – the high-flying and adventurous panto full of swashbuckling fun squares itself, as usual, as a firmly ‘Glasgow’ experience. Which means one thing: it’s open to anyone, even for the Edinburgh and Fife folk brave enough to cross the border.

Our shared matriarch of comedy, song, and entertainment, Elaine C. Smith, may be a through-and-through Glasgow gal, but Scotland’s leading Panto Dame has no sign of slowing in their continuing career as Mother to the King’s Theatre crowds.  Turning even the more formulaic of pantomimes into a festive treat for all, Smith’s additional material (along with Johnny Mac) into Alan McHugh’s script keeps this a Peter Pan, which brings the enchantment of J M Barrie’s story to the West Coast. Making up for their sins as the villainous Child Catcher in the recent tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Smith’s Peggy Smee is a delightful performance, one where Smith places all their pride and adoration into the Crossroads-produced show.

With a lung capacity that could reach the bottom of the ocean and back, Mac’s linguistic gymnastics are in fine fettle for this year’s tongue-twisters and annual renditions of party songs. Thanks to a couple of (for once genuine) flubs from panto pals Smith and Brownlie, they really do slaughter the audience and leave them giddily crying for more. Under Mac’s delivery, even the routines and gags as old as the venue somehow still catch audiences unawares. But the third regular, the glittering pink and azure star of the show, must be awarded to Darren Brownlie, giving any Tinkerbell a run for their wand. Flamboyant to near combustive levels, brought back to earth by their frequent flubs and belly laughs, turn the Glasgow audience into absolute putty in their mitts. Brownlie and the gang’s comradery and openness with the audience ultimately sell the show for that Glasgow attitude to roll with the punches and to hit back even harder when things go awry: this Peter Pan crew is up for a laugh, and by heavens, they deliver by hook or by crook.

Joining the regular King’s Theatre crowd, Hannah Jarrett-Scott’s Captain Hook brings the theatrics to the dastardly hook, though it takes time for them to settle into the rhythm when holding their own against the seasoned co-stars. But there’s a fantastically sharp edge in the second act, with the return of the ‘prop song’, a highlight of any King’s Panto, which really lets Jarrett-Scott let loose the cannons and gets some of the biggest laughs courtesy of an Electric Eel… and making an impact with a fantastic musical solo, Jarret-Scott’s scenes with their pirate crew are some of the better examples of Jane McMurtrie’shigh-energy choreography, and Grant Walsh’s musical direction in what becomes a show which rarely takes a breath, shifting from dance sequence to gymnastics, comedic skits, and back into song with the wave of a hook.

Making use of the expectant high-wire stunts and animatronics (including an appearance from one of Crossroads greatest, the enormous and threatening Tick-Tock Crocodile), the Darling children have a bit of a back-seat in this story, but that isn’t stopping Blythe Jandoo and Ty McPhee from bringing in some innocent charm and tight vocals as Wendy and John, with the role of Michael rotating between a quartet of talented youth performers. With most of the references and jabs to the surrounding areas being confined to the script, Teresa Nalton and Mike Coltman’s costumes and the set-dressings retain panto-pop, if a little sparse on some of the more visual gags at the neighbouring towns and areas expense.

But behind all that bustle and lights, all the effects and intensive choreography, there beats that Caledonian heart – in a way that a Glasgow Panto excels at. Some may have the bigger laughs, others the snazzier charm or haughty upper-lip, but only a King’s Pantomime, in its 60-year-run, can join a select number of shows which can communicate with their audience with such a personal legacy and esteemed manner: yes, even with the fart jokes. Flying high on the winds of success, maintained by the eruptions from the audience below, Peter Pan is a fitting marker of sixty years, a legacy which has no plans of slowing.

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