Theatre reviews: Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs | Snow White and The Seven Maws | Ginger

Snow White And The Seven Maws, Oran Mor, Glasgow ****

Ginger, Tramway, Glasgow ****

The Glasgow King’s pantomime has a familiar look, this year, for anyone who saw Snow White in Edinburgh last Christmas; for this well-tried Crossroads Pantomimes production of the classic tale is still full of outrageous pink and blue sparkle, played up by the Glasgow King’s with some terrific auditorium lighting, welcoming the audience into what feels like a theatre-cum-party venue, and a magical palace of delights.

The show itself seems to rattle through the story of Snow White in slightly hasty style, although all the best panto elements are present and correct. The comedy sequences are a touch subdued, as if the partnership between Elaine C Smith as Snow White’s Nurse Bella, and Johnny Mac as her daft son Muddles, is in need of an injection of energy from a new third character; and Darren Brownlie’s gorgeous Man In The Mirror, while well placed to provide that spark, is not yet written up quite enough to give them the companion they need.

All of which throws an unusual emphasis onto the show’s romantic plot, with Blythe Jandoo as Snow White and Christopher Jordan-Marshall as Prince Hamish both offering up some real wit and glamour, and a strong rapport with the audience. Add a couple of genuine Disney songs, dwarfs played in traditional (if now controversial) style by the Magnificent Seven, and a powerful and touching new matriarchal twist to the story’s final scene, and you have a show that gathers pace and warmth as it approaches its happy ending, in the most feathered and bejewelled over-the-top finale in Scottish panto-land.

At Oran Mor, meanwhile, the tireless Johnny McKnight offers a grown-up version of Snow White fit to blow the audience’s eyebrows off, with its eloquent subversion of the traditional tale. Julie Cullen as Snow White looks the Disney part; but as she stalks the castle grounds with a smoking gun, picking off any humans or animals that annoy her, we sense that things in Snow White And The Seven Maws might be a little different; and for a furious 55 minutes, McKnight tears apart the heteronormative assumptions of the Snow White story, satirising them in the show’s memorably rude theme song, and giving short shrift to Prince Charming when he shows up on his white horse.

The Oran Mor panto, of course, can’t afford to put seven of anyone on stage; but when Snow White arrives at her woodland hideaway, Maureen Carr and Carmen Pieraccini (who also plays wicked Queen Valentina, in fine oligarch style) make a fine job of playing the seven not-very-maternal mothers she finds there, working as cleaners. As the only man in the cast, Neil John Gibson puts in a strong and likeable dame shift as Snow White’s nurse, Hedda Lettuce; and Martin McCormick directs with memorable flair, right to the show’s rude and hilarious end.

In Ginger at the Tramway, meanwhile, Edinburgh-based group Tortoise In a Nutshell offer a fine short show, ideal for three and four year-olds, about a posh 1950s-television-style cook – in pink new-look dress with kitchen to match – whose attempt at demonstrating how to bake perfect gingerbread men is reduced to chaos when some of the gingerbread people come to life, and start rioting around her previously perfect kitchen. It’s an idea that requires some clever and perfectly-paced puppetry, and a well-pitched solo performance from Kerry Cleland, all directed by Alex Bird and Arran Howie; and it’s difficult to describe the sheer ecstasy with which the tiny audience responds to this delightful vision of kitchen anarchy – and to the chance, after the show, to decorate some little gingerbread people for themselves.

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, until 7 January. Snow White And The Seven Maws at Oran Mor, Glasgow, until 6 January. Ginger at Tramway, Glasgow, until 16 December.