The Cheerios Christmas Panto: Sleeping Beauty

Tivoli Theatre, Dublin

It's a work of breathtaking subtlety, restrained understatement and emotional tenderness . . . Oh, no, it's not! It's the Cheerios Christmas Panto. From the opening scene, the Tivoli's Sleeping Beautygrabs you by the ooh-er-I-can't-say-what, pulls you to your feet and doesn't release you until the last strains of the audience-participative finale have died away. The script is funny, the dancing spectacular, and the boyband, Katy Perry and Gleenumbers are carefully selected for maximum singalong potential. (Dear Santa, could you please get Party Rock Anthemout of my head for Christmas?)

John Lovett's panto dame, Buffy Cole, fires out double-entendres faster than Nestle churns out Cheerios boxes (the circular cereal pops up occasionally in script and onstage, but the sponsors and producers keep it to a minor role).

We expected Niamh Kavanagh's magnificent voice to play a blinder – and it did – but her icy performance as the Evil Queen Nastina was a show-stealer too.

Alan Hughes, as Sammy Sausages, connects instantly with children, and Lauren Nevin, who plays Princess Kate, has singing-and-dancing talent to burn.

Did we miss Georgia Salpa, who pulled out of the role of Queen Kardashian due to circumstances which the producers said were "beyond our control"? In this writer's opinion, Ireland saw more than enough of Georgia in 2011, and the show is no less enjoyable for her absence. Michelle McGrath stepped in and brought a nice dash of ditzy humour – including a Georgia Salpa joke – to the role.

I feel as cruel as the Evil Queen Nastina saying anything negative about a show as fun-filled this one, but my one quibble is that much of the humour was adult-oriented rather than child-friendly. Preteens and older kids may appreciate the fart jokes, bum jokes and the thinly disguised "b***h" joke, but there could have been more gentle gags for children still in the innocent years.

runs until January 15th