Stage: Spilling the beans

Tossed
The RVT Panto
by Tim Benzie, Paul Joseph
director Tim McArthur
musical director Vicki Calver 
with Ed Cooke, Leigh Pollard, Grace Kelly Miller, Ada Campe, Ben Hutt
Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London • 29.Nov.23-5.Jan.24 ★★★★

Taking their usual hilarious approach to the Christmas pantomime, Royal Vauxhall Tavern follows Rubbed, Slipped, Goosed, Pricked and Cracked with Tossed, a delightfully deranged sequel to Jack and the Beanstalk. While the structure is very familiar, the cast has been completely refreshed with a wonderfully up-for-it ensemble, and the jokes are right up to date with the messy reality of British politics. It's a perfect antidote to the usual holiday sweetness, although there's some of that too.

Narrated by the now-talking cow Daisy (Miller), the plot is fairly irrelevant, set after Jack (Cooke) has risen to social media fame as a giant killer, but he's wondering what he should do next. Meanwhile, his overambitious mother Spriggins (Hutt) is angling for him to marry into even more money, and the most likely candidate is Gina T (Pollard), a human-sized giant who is on a mission to avenge her fallen relative. And then there's Sorcererer (Campe), an endlessly mischievous magician who is happy to meddle.

Livening all of this up is a steady barrage of innuendo, rude jokes and knowingly hilarious references to things like reality TV, Britain's disastrous Tory government (including the ghost of Liz Truss) and the scandal-plagued royal family. Among the flurry of sharply performed songs that have been adapted to tell this story, there are new hits like Kylie's Padam Padam and Sam Ryder's Space Man, iconic tunes like Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It), Love Shack and (I've Had) The Time of My Life, belters like Don't Stop Believin' and Mamma Mia, and the Barry Manilow/Take That classic Could It Be Magic (plus a bit of on-stage magic).

As always, the audience participation elements feel rather repetitive, including a witty and enjoyably frantic variation on 12 Days of Christmas and a climactic singalong. And each character's call-and-response gag kind of gets lost in the shuffle, as it should. But there are also riotously amusing running gags, such as Dame Spriggins pointlessly begging the audience to please not boo her. And the hilarious choreography and snappy wordplay livens up the bonkers plot, as does the chaotic slapstick and a late connection to the enduring queer scene in Vauxhall.

For information, ROYAL VAUXHALL TAVERN >

photos by Chris Jepson • 1.Dec.23