One of the most enduring pantomimes of all time – the first panto production of this tale drawn from the Thousand and One Nights was at Covent Garden in 1788 – Aladdin, or to give it its original title, Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, remains a firm favourite with audiences everywhere. Who could fail to be drawn to the loveable young scamp from the back streets of Peking who falls on his feet, finds a magic lamp, and ends up marrying a princess, and in this production principal boy Aladdin is amply rewarded with the hand of Princess Jasmine, no sweet and sickly principal girl, but a lass with plenty of spunk - and a social conscience. His mum’s just a poor, widowed washerwoman – while hers, the Empress of China, is a Right Royal Snob. And that’s not the only fly in the ointment of the budding romance. There’s the Empress’s son-in-law-elect to contend with too – Prince Pekoe, traditionally played as a second principal boy. She may be gullible - well, surely anyone can see that New Lamps for Old is just too good an offer to be true – but Widow Twankey, one of the best-known dames in the land of pantomime, is as big-hearted as they come. It’s not her fault the laundry’s always going wrong. Her other son Wishee Washee’s to blame there. Once he starts wielding his washboard, the royal bloomers stand no chance! Good job Typhoo – a cute and cuddly panda who’s resourceful to boot – is on hand to lend a paw, even if he is intent on eating the Twankeys out of house and bamboo shoots. A lion’s share of the laughs falls to those two fine, upstanding - and singularly un-intelligent – members of the Peking Constabulary, Cop Sooey and Feng Shooey. They couldn’t catch a cold, let alone as slippery a character as the wicked magician, Abanazar, the archetypal panto baddie and a nasty piece of work if ever there was one. It takes the combined efforts of the Genie of the Lamp, a gorgeous creature and doesn’t he know it, and Say Wen, as foxy a little bimbo as ever a Slave of the Ring could be, to fettle him! No Royal Household should be without its Grand Vizier, and this offers the opportunity for a member of the chorus to take on a small role, while other chorus parts can be found among the market traders of Peking: Tick Tock, the dodgy watch salesman, Nik Nak with his bric-a-brac, Oodles the Noodles seller, Saw See, a purveyor of seaside postcards, and Li Chi the fruit and veg man. As well as playing citizens and traders, the chorus appear as Jewel Spirits in the Magic Cave and Egyptian slave girls. There are also performing pandas, and, for one member of the junior chorus, a mini-mummy. Order a reading copy