A Lad In Soho ☆☆☆☆
Karma Sanctum Hotel
The basement room of a mid range hotel in London’s Soho is not the first place you would expect to find a raucous gay panto.
For those not from the UK, firstly an explanation of the British eccentricity that is Pantomime. Its roots go back to Victorian times (and earlier) and stock characters, fanciful plots and a whole lot of audience interaction is involved.
The latest fad is a departure from the family pantos where double entendres that appeal on two levels to both innocent children and their not so innocent parents. Now adult only pantos are increasingly popular where the air is as blue as blue can be and there is always a whole load of cross dressing.
Initial expectations are not unrealistic and certainly not exceeded as the audience take their seats. There is a bargain basement set design of a cardboard cut out Peking and some LED rope lights. Simon Gross (C5’s Big Brother) is Lady Abanazer and she is manically, terrifyingly, whipping the audience into a frenzy (and the room is absolutely packed to the rafters) with foul mouthed renditions of Hi Ho Silver and other seasonal classics.
The humor is old school i.e. heavily reliant on stereotypes and close to the knuckle racial gags. Lady Abanazer exclaims “Hey I’m Jewish and I’m gay”. Whether this provides a complete pass on everything is debatable but when it comes to Panto Lady Abanazer has the golden touch of Joan Rivers with Tourette’s in a south London lorry park.
Another facet of the modern Pantomime is the use of annoying pop songs as the lingua franca, punctuating the action, providing each character with their moment in the limelight. In the audience there are two or three gaggles of straight girls who can be relied on with plenty of spirited heckling and appreciative (and rather endearing) shouts of “Tune!!!!” when a song like “This is me.” from The Greatest Showman is performed.
Aladdin is intriguingly played as a narcissistic snowflake (I can’t move that rock – I might break a nail“) of fairly non specific sexual orientation (in tight silk shorts and a toned tummy on show to all).
The cast have strongly crafted characterisations and whilst the singing is variable, there are also a couple of evidently professionally trained dancers in the cast so the whole staging and choreography is really very good and the costumes were gloriously silly. What is clear is that Simon Gross has the ability to pen a rhyming couplet to link any scene and to meet any required plot device and they are delicious. Most importantly he has directed a show infused with an energy that is simply nuclear and hilarious at times – the gags keep coming and the belly laughs are consistent.
By the end of the (overly long) show you feel the warm glow of humanity emanating from the stage and you know you have had a great night out. London will certainly be keen to give this Aladdin a warm hand on his entrance.
Sanctum Hotel 20 Warwick St, Soho, London W1B 5NF, UK
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/london/karma-sanctum-soho-london/a-lad-in-soho
REVIEW: JONNY WARD
