The Peter Pan Panto

Madness. The Gaiety Theatre was packed, almost all school children (something like ten school groups were there). They were encouraged to talk back to the stage. “What’s that noise, everyone?” “IT’S HOOK!” “What did you say?” “CAPTAIN HOOK!” “I’ll go look over here.” “HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!”

I don’t remember Peter Pan having a character named “Dame Nana”. Or Tinkerbell singing a song about selfies. Or Hook’s pirates including a Harry Potter parody, a pirate heavily into musical theatre, and a little person.

Hook in particular was great: he hurled invective at the audience to thundering boos, eventually building to a call-and-response like “I’ll get that Peter Pan, oh yes I will!” “Oh no you won’t!” “OH YES I WILL!” “OH NO YOU WON’T!” “Ah, bugger!”

Good show. I’m really not the target audience, but I like silliness, and it was very, very silly.