Review: 'The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan' is spellbinding

Whether it is a band playing to half a dozen people at the back of a pub or a massive show at a London theatre, it is fantastic when people engage with the performers on stage, especially if they were initially hesitant or had no idea what was going on.

This is the situation I found myself in when I took my girlfriend to see “The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan” at the Mayflower in Southampton. Having grown up in Kerala, in southern India, she had never seen a panto before (and my hurried explanation did not help matters) so while she was initially confused by the singing and dancing men in tights, the TV doctor who was dressed as a merman and the dedication to rhyming, she was soon joining in with all the audience participation with gusto. I know that she had become a panto fan for life after I looked over and saw her miming an air-trumpet at the urging of the panto fool; I was not surprised when we left the theatre, and she said that she’d had a great time and wanted to go again.

The plot of “Peter Pan” is relatively simple. The magic of Neverland is fading, with Peter Pan no longer able to fly. Banding together with his friends Wendy Darling, Tink, Smee, and the Magical Merman, the group heads to Neverland Lagoon to try and save the land – and stop Captain Hook along the way.

Alexandra Burke as Captain Hook in The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan (Image: Stuart Martin/Mayflower Theatre)

I enjoyed this panto much more than the Mayflower’s offering last year, Jack and the Beanstalk. There were stretches of last year’s show which felt like a bit of a slog to get through (although that might have been down to some tech issues that meant I was unable to clearly hear a lot of the performance). While the dancing of Diversity is fantastic, don’t get me wrong, and the group’s dynamic was really fun on stage, I found Alexandra Burke and Dr Ranj to be much stronger celebrity performers. Dr Ranj was obviously having great fun as the Magical Merman, with some very fun scenes.

However, Alexandra Burke is a natural-born panto star. She was absolutely fantastic as the evil Captain Hook, and really commanded the stage every time she came on. She was able to back up her stellar performance with her brilliant singing voice, with her performances of “Bad Boys” and “Hallelujah” both causing my jaw to drop.

Another strong performance came from Max Fulham as Smee – he showed off some fantastic ventriloquism skills that were a real breath of fresh air. I absolutely adored every time he came on stage, as I knew something absolutely hilarious was bound to follow. I also loved the scene right before the interval, where a giant crocodile appeared on stage – the Mayflower pantos often have oodles of flair, and this was no exception.

Overall, if you want to see a great panto this season, fly, don’t walk, to the Mayflower to see “The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan”!