Everything is feelgood at Greenwich, not just the happy ending
Wendy Darling’s great-granddaughter is working in Neverclean Car Wash and never happy on her minimum wage working for a nasty boss who makes her take off the flashing Acorn pendant given to her by her great-grandmother, the original Wendy Darling. While it hangs on the bumper of a dirty old car it attracts the ever-youthful boy who never grows up, Peter Pan, and so begins this year’s panto at Greenwich Theatre, writes Michael Holland.
Everybody has moved on since Captain Hook and Peter Pan first battled it out in a fight between good and evil. Hook is now 60 and feeling ancient and unwanted as a pirate with no evil to get involved in. Until that is, Tinkerbell (who magically glides around the stage on Wheelie Shoes) gets jealous as Peter and Wendy are drawn closer together.
She makes sure Hook gets some of her Elixir of Life to put fire back into his bones and want to fight Pan one more time. This, she hopes, will get rid of the innocent Wendy.
Journeys into Enchanted Forests and meetings with a Yoda-like alien to find the secret of eternal youth ensue and each step into the unknown is echoed with a joke of unknown age.
And so the scene is set for a panto by the same team that saw Anthony Spargo win the Best Panto Script award in 2024. He has also written this one and plays Hook where he can once again be the best baddie in town.
Greenwich Theatre has become quite legendary in how it has created a family with its loyal panto audience. They return each year knowing they will get a good show that will entertain everybody of all ages.
And that show will be in your face innuendo, lots of wink and nudge campology to give Hook an opportunity to get gags in that will land with laughter or fly on to deaf ears, which only gives him the chance to make another eye-rolling joke out of it. He is the master at this, his twelfth panto here. He can do quick fire gags just as well as visual jokes for the younger ones, such as marching military mops or a talking parrot on his shoulder. Anthony Spargo will use and abuse anything for the sake of getting laughs out of an audience – Even shooting a seagull out of the sky!
Yes, the majority of people might come to see Mr Spargo do his thing, but they also get to see great work from the other regulars, Sam Bailey and Louise Cielecki, while listening to the fantastic Steve Markwick, Gordon Parrish and Chris Wyles providing a soundtrack that includes Rose Royce, The Who, Springsteen, Queen, Madonna, Sister Sledge, Tina Turner, and lots of listens to Alright by Supergrass that tells of being young and free – the overriding subject of Peter Pan.
The SFX are now famous for being as hilarious as they are purposely cheap. Tinkerbell disappearing in a puff of smoke, the alien spaceship taking off or the talking parrot being used as a guinea pig for the magic elixir, created more guffaws than feelings of awe. And that is exactly what we want. It is why we come back every year.
Plus, there is an ensemble of four from local conservatoire, Trinity Laban; most getting their professional stage debut here. That in itself is magical.
One highlight for me was ‘Steve’s Lava Chicken’ song that I was completely unaware of. My young companion Tommy P, however, knew all the words and movements, which he performed with gusto when our half of the auditorium had to out-sing the other half. I was absolutely amazed at how he had learned the words so quickly until he explained that it is from a film that he knows very well.
Everything is feelgood at Greenwich, not just the happy ending. It is a must for Christmas.
Greenwich Theatre until January 11th.
Booking and full details: https://greenwichtheatre.org.uk/events/peterpan/
