Sunday afternoon was here and another pantomime for us to enjoy!  This time we had the treat of watching Aladdin at the Tyne Theatre & Opera House on Westgate Road.  We loved Cinderella last year, so knew we would be in for a great show.   We were pleased that Charlie Richmond was back with his Geordie jokes and daftness as Wishy-Washy & Lewis Denny as PC Pong. We have got to know Lewis this year through his hilarious ‘Karen the Mam‘s’ skits & seeing his sell-out shows up in Alnwick! Lewis is one to watch for sure!

The panto market is as buoyant as ever in the North East & us Geordies can’t seem to get enough of the traditional Christmas fun. Aladdin’s run is a week longer than last year’s Cinderella taking them up until into the New year until January 5th.

Aladdin at the Tyne Theatre & Opera House

Enchanted Entertainment has pulled together a cracking performance at the Tyne Theatre. Focusing on everything that makes a Traditional Pantomime a success. 

With a flash & a bang, Abanazzar set the scene with tales of the long lost lamp.  Unfortunately, David Easter had fallen ill over the weekend so was played by actor Andrew Goddard who is currently in the role in the same panto in Dorking. You wouldn’t even know. He was fantastic and lapped up the boos! A Hollyoaks joke ‘Return of the Mac’ was explained as ‘this won’t make sense as he’s not in Hollyoaks’ but this actually made it funnier when he quipped ‘But I am available!’

The genie (played by X Factor’s Marcus Collins) made his entrance & you already got a little taste of his excellent singing voice. Marcus channelled a bit of Will Smith from the recent movie with his fur coat and swagger but didn’t let his scouse accent drop!

Any opening night concerns over mics or sound quality had been ironed out on this 6th performance of the run. We were right about the vocals as the singing was spot on & in perfect time to the live orchestra. I’ll also add that the audio in this panto was the best we’ve experienced this year. The balance between singing and music made every word crystal clear.

Aladdin

Aladdin (played by Home & Away’s Nic Westaway) was a real natural in his role of cheeky chappy Aladdin. A few jokes were from Wishy Washy about why anyone would leave the sunshine of Australia for a winter in Newcastle. The snooty emperor wouldn’t have his daughter Princess Jasmine (local girl Hannah Wales) marrying poor Aladdin despite their attraction. They had a full woo-ing scene to the Home & Away soundtrack with them flying off walls as Wishy Washy tried to intervene. A fun version of George Ezra’s shotgun brought a bit of Summer sunshine to proceedings with a few deckchairs as comedy props.

Aladdin is set in Peking which confused the girls as in the Disney movie it’s set in Arabia, but I guess this is another panto tradition that you just have to roll with. Sometimes Aladdin is set in a Chinese laundry! And the typical gunge scene fits in well in the laundry, but this time poor PC Pong was getting the brunt of the washing soap & a taste of the mangle!

The Cave & the flying carpet

The second half after the interval really picked up the pace with an escape from the spooky cave, then a fantastic flying carpet scene solo from Aladdin as he sang Take That’s ‘Rule the World’. Inside the palace, we saw some fab aerial gymnastics & fire eating set to Jai Ho by Pussycat dolls sang by Princess Jasmine.

As with all panto’s, there was a happy ending and Aladdin was set to wed Princess Jasmine! As they ‘prepared for the wedding’ Wishy-Washy invited up some children from the audience which always provides good laughs.  My girls would never go up on stage so think the kids who take all the jokes and mickey-taking are ace!  The little girl who asked for a surprise for Christmas nearly jumped out of her skin when Washy gave her shock & said ‘well you did want a surprise!’ We even got a shout out from Wishy which mortified the girls, so good job done there!

Wedding Time

Soon it was time for the cast to take their bows at the wedding ceremony.  The staging really came into its own here and really did look super professional and glitzy. Enchanted Entertainment have a winning formula & are wise to have already signed Charlie Richmond & Lewis Denny back up for next years Christmas show which will be Sleeping Beauty! However, if you can’t wait until then Charlie Richmond will be starring in Enchanted’s Easter panto ‘Wizard of Oz’ so catch that if you can!

Additional Information
Dates: Friday 6th December – Sun 5th Jan 2020
Prices: Tickets are priced £14 – £25, Boxes £108 – £150, family ticket £63 – £89 (2 adults, 2 children or 1 adult, 3 children). Group & school tickets available (Plus booking fees when booking online or over the phone)
Address: 117 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4AG
Telephone: Booking Line: 0844 2491 000
Website: https://tynetheatreandoperahouse.uk/