The ingredients may be familiar, but the Gaiety's panto this year is marked by a certain flair in the cooking. Scriptwriters Maeve Ingoldsby and Martin Higgins take inventive liberties with some aspects of the story. The dwarfs have names like Snotty and Smelly, the magic mirror has a camp occupier who answers back, and the plot takes a few unfamiliar turns. Nothing wrong with any of that; quite the contrary.
The dwarfs are, by the way, really small men with a collective sense of fun that is infectious. They are professional theatre people, and it shows. Alan Stanford directs a large cast with the kind of skill that generally marks his theatre work: the direction is unobtrusive and on the button.
He has good material to work with. Rebecca Smith has always been good at the evil bit, and her Queen hisses and snarls most persuasively. Alan Smyth is better than ever in the role of Woody, a decent pleb who is really . . . well, that had better be left undisclosed. He sings and dances with verve, and seems to lift the general level of energy invested in the show. David O'Meara is the funny man in the mirror, and Richie Hayes generally aids and abets the action.
Mick Lally portrays the Woodman as a good-natured thick, likeable but low-flying. And there is, of course, Snow White herself, played here as a rocker with a mature voice by the seasoned Treasa Meegan, excellent in the lead. Stir in lots of dancers, a live band, colourful sets and rhythmic songs, and the charm's wound up effectively. My only grief was, as always, the community singing number, through which I sat mute, despite the psychological pressures to stand and deliver.
Well, never mind that. This is an excellent panto, as full of good things as any Christmas stocking.
Runs until early January; to book phone 01-6771717