Christmas Show
Too Many Penguins?
★★★★★ Not too many:
Clever, intriguing and thoroughly engaging for its target audience of pre-school toddlers, Too Many Penguins? returns in a form that is even better than before.
Last Christmas
★★★☆☆ Heartfelt:
Dirty Protest’s production of Last Christmas at the Traverse is an emotional and beautifully acted tale, but is not as much of an alternative to traditional Christmas theatre as it may first appear.
Morgan & West: A (sort of) Christmas Carol Magic Show
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable:
Old-fashioned trickery and a well-known story combine with humour in A (sort of) Christmas Carol Magic Show at the Spiegeltent – a seasonal offering that does not always gel but provides a great deal of entertainment.
EPT go for Gold
65th consecutive panto for EPT
When Edinburgh People’s Theatre take to the Church Hill Theatre stage this Friday, 9 December 2016 with Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it will be the company’s 65th consecutive pantomime.
Black Beauty
★★★★☆ Humorously inventive:
Black Beauty, the Traverse’s show for all ages this Christmas co-produced with Red Bridge, is a million miles from a straight adaptation of the children’s classic but provides more than enough fun for everyone.
Jack and the Beanstalk
★★★★☆ Raucous:
The celebrated trio of Allan Stewart, Grant Stott and Andy Gray are front and centre in this year’s King’s pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk – a production that is low on storyline but high on childlike fun and a headlong, effervescent energy.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
★★★★☆ Wonderful:
While not specifically Christmassy, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland at the Lyceum proves an ideal fit for the festive season. Hugely colourful, funny, and fascinating, it is thoroughly involving and a little disorienting.
Aladdin
✭✭✭✭✩ Flashes of brilliance:
Shiny, snappy and energetic, Aladdin at the King’s sacrifices some of the traditional interaction of a panto, but remains a highly satisfying production.
The BFG
✭✭✭✭✩ Whizzpopping fun:
The Lyceum is transformed into the magical world of the BFG where “all dreams is beginning”, through the imagination of Roald Dahl, adaptation of David Wood and direction of Andrew Panton.
Review – The Leithtivity
Broad swipes and accurate strikes make the Village Pub Theatre’s first venture into pantomime a mixed bag, as it retells the nativity with a scabrous, 20th century Leith twist.
