Bananaman: The Musical, Southwark Playhouse, London ★★½

Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: If you thought pantomime season was over for another year, think again. Southwark Playhouse’s latest musical Bananaman, based on the DC Thompson comic strip that now resides in the Beano after life in the now-defunct stablemates Nutty and the Dandy, is firmly in the over-the-top, child-friendly silly comedy vein. The…

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury ★★★½

Reviewed for The Reviews Hub: It is a recurring thread in many modern pantomimes that the titular heroines, from Sleeping Beauty to Cinderella, are among the least served in terms of scripted character. That’s certainly the case with Aylesbury’s version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where the characters of Muddles, Dolly the Nurse…

Wind in the Willows, London Palladium ★★★

Reviewed for Musical Theatre Review: Appearing at last weekend’s benefit concert for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, composers George Stiles and Anthony Drewe introduced themselves as: “the chaps with two musicals in the West End at the moment – and it’s the only time in our lives when we’ll be able to say…

Peter Pan, National Theatre ★★★★★

A movingly hilarious production that combines the magical nature of Never Land and the transformative power of storytelling with the melancholia inherent in Barrie’s writing