Went to watch a Christmas pantomime the other day at the Birmingham Hippodrome. First time I have been to one since I was a kid. I knew it would be a show for kids but thought it might be fun anyway. It actually turned out a lot of the humour is aimed at adults while the kids get colourful sets, lots of dancing and singing.
John Barrowman from Doctor Who and Tourchwood was the star and put on a very good performance, and did his best even when his wardrobe let him down a bit and he had to do one scene while holding up his own trousers to prevent them falling down.
However the rest of the cast together made this a great show. The Grumbleweeds, who I had never heard of before, took centre stage doing stand-up comedy to keep the adults entertained and were very funny.
The singing and dancing was as you would expect, not my sort of thing, but it was made more interesting by the dancing girls with very very short skirts and skimpy outfits, which altogether made the dancing much more entertaining.
The best part of the show however was the IMAX style 3D effects. I was hugely impressed as each time the Genie appeared the back screen was used as a rear projection cinema screen and we all had the 3D glasses. The effects of the 3D were very vivid and caught the attention of the audience very well.
The cross over with Doctor Whoo thanks to Mr Barrowman, was very played to as much as possible but the cameo appearance of the Darleks was great and gave the show a bit of a different edge to it.
Overall a great nights entertainment and I will look forward to seeing another pantomime show again next Christmas.
