Aladdin At The Grove Theatre, Dunstable Review

Reviewed by Hilz 

Venue 

The Grove Theatre Dunstable has a beautiful big Christmas tree in the corner and Christmas lights can be seen in the adjacent park from the foyer which is lovely.

Covid measures seemed excellent- one way system in place (although some folk inside were deliberately letting people in the exit by moving towards the doors- these were people using walking aids and so obviously the folk indoors thought they were being kind but it’s perhaps not Covid safe really).

The vast majority of people wore masks as instructed while both moving around the venue and in their seats which was the right thing to do. Shame it’s needed but we all have to do our bit.

The Performance 

It was great!!!

Felt so good to be out in live theatre with loads of families and groups including a primary school group having a fun wholesome time out.

We had good seats near the band. The band were only three, but they did an excellent job.

They were a fair few empty seats but not very many considering and it didn’t spoil the feeling of coming together and celebrating the fun festive season.

Abanazar was amazing! What a star. He was excellent from start to finish – the perfect (rather lovable) baddy, who played the part with expertise but not so seriously as to frighten the children.

The jokes came thick and fast – can’t believe how many of them there were – very good.

Also there were lots of bang up-to-date jokes for example about Covid and Boris which kept the grown-ups chuckling too.

The songs were great – one from “La La Land” and several pop hits.

Plenty of hijinks with actors running up and down the aisles kept us on our toes.

The costumes were very good indeed – I particularly loved the red and gold dress that the princess wore and the Genie of the lamp outfit.

Another lovely thing was that the cast seem to get on with each other so very well – whenever there was a mistake ( there were one or two…!) the cast just laughed with each other and helped each other along – that was really really nice and added to the sense of being one big family together looking out for each other.

There was a good variety including solo songs, all-together songs, dances and even a fire dancer and eater.

After the 20 minute interval the slapstick really got underway.

Cannot count the number of custard pies that Wishee Washee had pushed in his face.

It seems like he had counted though! Haha – The whole 12 days of Christmas scene was hilarious.

As was the ‘ pun-demonium ‘ that was the take on lots of shop names – you’ll have to see it to understand but it’s worth it – trust me.

A different mood was set as Aladdin sang on his flying carpet, which raised and lowered so quickly I was surprised that Aladdin didn’t get put off his lines! But very nice, and atmospheric .

In fact all the sets were very good.

Birthday shout outs happened near the end which must’ve made the recipients feel really special– Well done team! 

And we had a good sing song all together – always gives that feel good factor doesn’t it.

Standout performances? – Well, Abanazar played by Richard David-Caine as already said.  

The Princess Jasmine – George Hutton – who apparently was making her debut – hard to believe as she is so good – definitely a rising star.

And Tommy J who played Wishee Washee – who is only 18. A very talented individual indeed.

So overall the very best thing about the whole show was hearing the children really interacting and shouting and laughing – oh that felt so good!

Later on Will who both played widow Twankey and is the show Director talked about the joy of being back doing live theatre after all we have been through (and are still going through)

He commented that after all the months that people were not able to go to the theatre it “makes us realise just how precious this is“.

So true.

So… Go on… Treat the family to this panto!  You won’t regret it!

Rating: 4 1/2 stars out of five

Aladdin is on at The Grove Theatre from 10th December 2021 until 3 January 2022.

Tickets cost from £16.00

To book please visit Aladdin | Grove Theatre or phone the box office on 01582 602080.