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 

Stage: Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast

Love’s Labour’s Lost
by William Shakespeare
dir Nicky Diss; musical dir David Knight
with Adam Courting, Charlotte Worthing, Grace Kelly Miller, Stuart Turner
Open Bar at Fuller's Pub Gardens • 12.Jul-18.Aug.21

Shakespeare's offbeat romantic comedy is given a lively farcical touch by the Open Bar Theatre Company, as four intrepid performers take on a rather large number of characters with the help of an audience member and two balloon-head puppets. Stir in a few songs and lots of physical mayhem, and it's a perfect show for a pub garden on a summer evening. It's also remains thoroughly enjoyable even in stretches when the wordy dialog becomes impenetrable. As the actors remind us, this is show features Shakespeare's longest word, longest speech and longest scene.

The plot is a knotted mess, as the King of Navarre swears an oath with his three friends to devote all their energies to their studies for three years. This includes avoiding all women. Of course, the moment they all take their vows, the Princess of France arrives with three beautiful ladies in waiting. And the four men set out to secretly woo one woman each. Meanwhile, the Spaniard Don Adriano has his own convoluted romantic entanglement with the country wench Jacquenetta. What follows involves misdelivered letters, concealed identities and lots of subterfuge.

With just four actors playing at least three roles each, it's fairly impossible to keep up with the messy plot threads, so the best bet is to order some food and drink from the pub and just sit back and enjoy the silliness. These four actors are enormously charming and seriously skilled, adopting quick costume changes along with full-on physicality to create each character, all while singing, dancing and literally running in circles for a couple of hours. Each one engages hilariously with audience members and throws in improvised asides that add current commentary as well as in-the-moment gags.

With the actors gleefully swapping genders along with their costumes, this production is able to offer a gently queer spin on Shakespeare's playful exploration of masculinity. And the amusingly chaotic plot and surprisingly thoughtful ending add a thematic kick about the dangers of indulging in fantasies or rushing into promises that can never be kept. So even when the play itself isn't particularly funny, Open Bar succeeds in its mission to keep the audience laughing, and often happily sighing as well.

Open Bar also has a production of As You Like It touring in Fuller's pubs. For full information about both shows: SHAKESPEARE IN THE GARDEN >

Charlotte Worthing, Adam Courting, Grace Kelly Miller and Stuart Turner
Photos by lhphotoshots