7 December – 5 January

Directed by Kathryn Rooney, this season’s Hippodrome pantomime is set in the glittery world of old-time circus. Aided by her son Billy (Brian Conley) and granddaughter Goldilocks (Lucy Conley), Dame Betty Barnum (David Robbins) heads a successful big top show, but she has a wicked rival who is plotting to steal the deeds to her business. This is Baron Von Blackheart (Phil Corbitt), and he runs the Circus of Nightmares – boo!

In time-honoured fashion Dame Betty Barnum is man-hungry, her ideal type being anyone ‘under ninety and breathing’, and early in proceedings a punter from the front rows is picked out on camera to be the target of her amorous attentions. Last night’s victim was Mark, who seemed to bear up well. Later in the show Dame Betty’s chief function is to appear in ever more outlandish costumes, thanks to designer Teresa Nalton’s wild imagination.

As Billy Barnum, Brian Conley is the star of the show, establishing an instant rapport with the audience in seemingly effortless fashion. Last night his very funny interaction with a punter called Pete, who proved to have a good singing voice, was a highlight of the first half. However, the very best moment came late in the show when Conley brought four small children to the stage. Their guileless answers to his questions were delightful, and brought a welcome breath of quiet innocence to a show which elsewhere tends to be an eyeball-searingly bright and noisy assault on the senses.

There are other talents on display. The Magical Mysterioso (Phil Hitchcock) performs baffling tricks involving floating balls of fire, and conjures doves out of thin air, while Barnum’s Circus Tumblers (The Timbuktu Tumblers) defy gravity in spectacular fashion, climbing high on each other’s shoulders. Such sequences are very watchable, but do not always seem to have much to do with the storyline, making this often seem more like a variety show than a pantomime.

One might think that a story centred on what amounts to a corporate takeover bid is unlikely to feature much in the way of romance, and one would be right, for this show is somewhat lacking in heart. The humour is overly fixated on flatulence, and some elements seem rather dated. Phil Corbitt does a fine job as the villainous Blackheart, but giving him a Germanic name and accent is surely a rather moth-eaten idea, as is a brief sequence involving a flamboyantly camp gay character. However, near the end there is a scene where Goldilocks says a fond farewell to her father Billy, and here the real-life father and daughter playing those roles create a much-needed moment of real tenderness.

This Goldilocks And The Three Bears does not quite hang together in an entirely coherent fashion, but there is spectacle in abundance, and one ginormous offering from the FX Twins will have children wide-eyed in wonder.

★★★☆☆  Mike Whitton, 11 December 2024

Photo credit: Mark Dawson Photography