Pantomime

Sleeping Beauty

King’s Glasgow

Mary Brennan, three stars

BIG sorries, loons and quines in FurryBoots City but Elaine C Smith has returned to her panto roots in Glasgow after being the Grand Dame (and a Doric-tastic one at that) in Aberdeen. She’s Fairy Bella Houston, employed by the rulers of Glasweedgia to safeguard Princess Beauty from the evil machinations of Carabosse – you’ll probably know how the story goes, which is just as well. Narrative detail is not the strong point in this first ever QDOS panto at the King’s. The typically lavish production gets round the gaps in the plot-line by screening a couple of television news flashes – like Greek tragedy, all the really dramatic stuff happens off-stage and is reported. It’s certainly one way of making more time for the comedy cantrips and banter that, interwoven with song’n’dance routines, are the driving forces here.

Elaine C Smith, in cahoots with Johnny Mac’s genial eejit, Muddles, is wise to the fact that laughter is like magic: wordplay with local references to the fore, or the practical jokery in Twelve Days of Christmas, keeps all ages charmed and happy while Smith’s turn as Adele is a cracker. Juliet Cadzow slinks wickedly as Carabosse, voice purring with menace although Paul-James Corrigan is disappointingly underused as her daft, dim-witted son, Slimeball. Meanwhile, Beauty (Maggie Lynne) and her Prince (Will Knights) prove that love at first sight does exist – they hardly exchange a word beyond a singing duet. There is a singalong cloot – hurrah! – but audience participation is on a potentially shoogly nail when Fairy Bella and Muddles put folk on the (awkward) spot with a video camera. You won’t snooze off, for sure, with so much talent on-stage – maybe next year, let them get on with it, and ditch the gimmicky screen stuff.