Kids in London – Peter Pan at Richmond Theatre

Pantomimes are an integral part of getting into the Christmas spirit. “Oh no they’re not” – “Oh yes they are!” And the gang at Richmond didn’t fail to deliver a colourful, energetic and fun filled evening’s entertainment that kept both young and old members of the audience enthralled.

While waiting for the show to start we were treated to some rousing pirate music with Harry Potter overtones. Then the curtain went up to reveal a huge silvery moon and a glittery backdrop with an animation of Peter flying around the sky. The animations of the London skyline – including Big Ben - during a later flying scene were even more breathtaking.

We “oohed and aahed” at the great fluffy dog Nana as she was taken from the children’s nursery. We booed and hissed at Captain James T Hook – especially when he did his opening number to Michael Jackson’s “Bad”. We were shouting and cheering as Hook and Peter Pan battled and we were truly amazed at Bonnie Langford (surely the girl that never grows up?) as she worked the wires like a trapeze artist and did an awesome spin that most circus performers would have been proud of.

The Never Land scene opens with a colourful spectacle of dancing pink and red gorillas, great yellow doo doos, a cute warthog and an even cuter lemur. The rather camp dancing pirates had us in stitches as they fooled around and danced the rumba, jive and waltz whilst Captain Hook tried to bring some discipline to the proceedings. And the Daddies in the audience were sure to have been impressed with the scantily clad and rather acrobatic Red Indian women.

There were plenty of singalong songs – with numbers from High School Musical, Lion King and a show stopping line up of those fabulous pirate dancers doing “If I were not a pirate there’s something else I’d like to be…” with turns including daleks, Vicky Pollard, Sponge Bob, Bruce Forsyth and Peggy Mitchell. And we all joined in as the balloons fell whilst we sang a patriot “Rule Brittania” rather than give in to the will of the wicked pirates.

The scenery throughout was excellent – forests with huge mushrooms, Marooner’s Island (a huge skull), the nursery play room, the Indian encampment and Peter’s underground cave. Tinkerbell was a bell and a light – very traditional – although she made an animated appearance on the kite of the Lost Boys.

Whilst Simon Callow and Bonnie Langford were supreme professionals, the show was stolen (as is often the case at Richmond – remembering last year’s Paul Zerdin puppets) by Smee played campfully by comedian Tony Rudd. He also led the singalong audience participation (“What shall we do with a drunken sailor?”) and charmed us by persuading four young children to go onto the stage and tell us about their favourite subjects at school (the answer from one was “Chelsea”!).

So. A great evening that left us all feeling uplifted and ready for the season’s festivities to commence but, just in case you are too busy partying, it continues until 11th January. The event was sponsored by the brand new “Marriott London Twickenham” so here’s hoping they’ll do some more for arts in West London.