Pantomime
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
King’s Glasgow,
four stars
‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall… Surprise, surprise folks! The Man in the Mirror has stepped out of the customary frame and is now our glittery-garbed narrator and an ongoing part of the action alongside Elaine C Smith and Johnny Mac.
It’s a twist in the tale that sees Darren Brownlie bring a twirl of twinkly camp to the Mirror Man and tho’ he’s not exactly a traditional Good Fairy, he certainly helps Nurse Bella (Smith) and her son Muddles (Mac) protect Snow White from her jealous stepmother, Queen Cranachan.
Her nasty disposition belies her sweet and sugary name, and Liz Ewing clearly enjoys swanking around in majestical black sequins! She might plot to kill Snow White, but she wouldn’t dare to steal Johnny Mac’s ever-popular catchphrase - as soon as he utters ‘I’m enjoying myself’, the audience reaction lets him know that they too are having fun.
And that fun is merrily reinforced when his lovable galoot, Muddles, is in tandem with Nurse Bella, constantly trying her patience with his cantrips - Elaine C Smith does a wonderful line in rising exasperation as, yet again, he wrongfoots her intentions or disrupts a (supposedly) serious musical number.
Throughout all this, however, Smith sustains a sense of Nurse Bella’s warm-hearted devotion to Snow White (a delightful Blythe Jandoo) - I’ll not spoil yet another twist that writer Alan McHugh has introduced into the otherwise familiar tale, but it’s one to cherish.
A kilted Prince Calum (Christopher Jordan-Marshall) honours panto tradition by regularly slapping his thigh, The Magnificent Seven - a characterful team of dwarfs - bring a hint of Disney to the forest, while the plentiful local references ensure Glaswegia is a place we recognise even if we maybe don’t make such a spectacular song and dance about it.
Hi-ho,hi-ho! - and ho-ho-ho as the gags come thick and fast in what is a thoroughgoing family panto.
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