Dick Whittington : A New Dick in Town    ☆☆☆☆  Above The Stag Theatre London 

This Dick is just what London needed. Using an avalanche of entendres about the titular cast member the laughs come at a rapid pace in a, dare we say, full-throated ode to all the trials and tribulations of post-Covid London. The main message is captured by the cast when they say “London is the best place in the world, despite what Manchester says” 

The new Dick in town (Jonny Peyton Hill) is fresh from poverty-stricken Gloucester and feeling his way in the hometown of Big Ben. On his way, he meets Alex (Keanu Adolphus Johnson) the newly anointed Spirit of London, who has been tasked with inserting Dick into the role of Mayor in order to save London from Queen Rat’s candidacy. Queen Rat hears the rumor about Dick’s potential and seeks to thwart him by ruining his reputation. First, she gets him thrown out of his job in fashion, and then when Alex gets him a job in the Fitzwarren family funeral parlor, she maneuvers to have him accused of theft.

It would not be panto if the star of the show wasn’t the Dame. In this case, Alex’s stepmother Sarah (Matthew Baldwin) is the sex-starved queen of cunning linguistics who has her own take on Cockney rhyming slang. Baldwin plays every line to the best effect including a little improv to ignite the audience participation. He makes the whole audience willing to give Dick a hand.

With a tiny cast of 5 people, it’s another production at the Above the Stag that feels bigger than imaginable. Set Design is by David Shields, who we remember delivered a similar sense of a big West End production in a small space in the recent The Pleasure Garden. Whilst the lyrics are more memorable than the tunes, the sheer volume of smut will be hard to forget. At one point the audience is embroiled in a sing-a-long that vaguely starts off like She Sells Sea Shells but ends with her spitting for six shillings and swallowing for seven.

There is no subversion in this pantomime. It pretty much does what it says on the tin, a good old gay adult panto that, depending on your grandmother, would have her spinning in her grave or rolling in the aisles. It is witty, relentless and filthy. This is the Dick Queerguru promised you.