Review: Aladdin at Newcastle Theatre Royal
Celebrating 20 years of pantos at the top of Grey Street in deftly daft style. Lesley Oldfield reports back
If stars were given here on Cultured North East, there would be five at the top of this review.
The Theatre Royal audience was buzzing in anticipation long before the curtain went up last night and they were not disappointed.
In the opening minutes alone a feast of neon lights, sparkling costumes, starry projections, bangs, flashes and puffs of smoke are but window dressing to magnificent monsters and the silliest of slapstick.
My plus-one giggled delightedly throughout. She is 61. Our much smaller neighbour was constantly on his feet, laughing and cheering with the rest of the audience, who were invited to participate from the start. “Oh, yes they were!”
Wallsend’s own Michael Harrison, producer of a string of hit West End musicals and tours, comes home each year to make the show happen with father and son Danny Adams and Clive Webb, this year starring as Aladdin and Father Goose.
Mother Goose is our treasured dame Chris Hayward, whose many frocks are world class and whose words are wonderfully Geordie and always perfectly enunciated.
Please note that when she addresses you as a “Bonny Bairn”, be ready to shout back: “Hiya Hinny!”
South Shields’ singer Joe McElderry joins the cast for the fifth time and is clearly having a ball amid the organised chaos which ensues. He acts as our narrator as well as a genie and bawdy comic foil to Aladdin.
Danny’s brother and fellow CBBC star Mick Potts is a big favourite. He has but one speed, and it is not fast.
Rachel Stanley as the Wicked Witch of Wallsend makes a fine villain whose performance is big enough to stand up against all the other fabulous nonsense.
The plot really doesn’t matter, but Billie-Kay is the love interest, Princess Jemima; Wayne Smith her pompous father Old King Cole; and a big shout out to Oliver Moriarty as the cutest goose you ever met.
Highlights include a flying carpet, an unforgettable striptease, a fabulously costumed ensemble of dancers, a parade of perfectly timed slapstick performances and, as always, a surprise new skill shown off by Danny. He really is a remarkable comic talent.
I missed his usual recounting of the whole of the pantomime, but instead he recounted the last 20 productions. The show is a real anniversary special and might be one of Clive’s last, should the threats and hints be followed through.
If this review doesn’t persuade you to go along, then the fact that £1.2m has already been made in ticket sales for 2027’s Jack & the Beanstalk just might.
Aladdin runs until Sunday, January 18, 2026. Tickets from the Theatre Royal website theatreroyal.co.uk