Christmas panto is theatre with the volume turned up!

BRIGHT lights, dazzling costumes, big laughs and grand dance routines to booming music: panto is theatre with the volume turned up, and this year’s production of Dick Whittington is loud and laudable in every sense.

- BY ANDY PHILLIPS

Shane Richie as Dick Whittington (left) at Theatre Royal Plymouth; with Emily Beth Harrington as Alice Fitzwarren; Iain Stuart Robertson as Sarah The Cook; and Samuel Holmes (also below) as the Spirit of Bow Bells STEVE TANNER

(STEVE TANNER)

Of course, a big production needs a big presence on stage, and they don’t get much bigger than Shane Richie.

The TV star and comedian is front and centre about almost everything that is great about this year’s pantomime at Theatre Royal Plymouth, which is exactly why he has been brought back to one of his old stomping grounds to deliver four weeks of nonstop fun and hilarity.

Yes, this year it’s all about Dick Whittington, of course – but if you are in any way offended by any kind of innuendo or double entendre, then this isn’t the show for you.

There will be few people who would consider the panto if that was the case anyway, and Richie and the accompanying cast come up with just about every joke they can about the character’s first name, and that’s just in the opening scenes.