... Aladdin South port Produced by Duggie Chapman and directed by Bill Maynard, the South-port Theatre's Aladdin is a winner all the way. With a cast full of TV personalities from Heartbeat to Coronation Street via Granada Tonight, this is a modem-day pantomime which still manages to retain all the traditional touches. David Lonsdale (Heartbeat's David) is excellent as the hapless Wishee Washee ...

... Dick Whittington Radlett The Brighton-based Upstage Prod uction Company has made the Radlett Centre's cosy creative space its home for the last few Christmases, having upped the regional pantomime stakes for others to match with last year's excellent Sleeping Beauty. Even if this year's Dick Whittington never quite reproduces that production's 'joie de festive vivre', this is still thoroughly ...

... Dracula Barons Court Theatre Dark, oppressive, the air laden with emotions of love, lust and repressed Victorian sexual desire. Not the kind of atmosphere usually associ ated with a Christmas show. Fullface and Profile's production of Bram Stoker's Dracula is however overflowing with these emotions. Excitement, suspense and a good measure of blood and guts literally ooze and overflow from the ...

... The Selfish Giant Newcastle-upon-Tyne Live Theatre is master of the art of theatre for the under sixes. Always cleverly produced, always something new and innovative on the cards and invariably the seasonal highlight. The programme at the Gulbenk- ian Studio begins with Spring awak ening and with her helpers preparing to plant the seeds. This action takes place away from the main set, before ...

... Cinderella Edmonton Cheap and cheerful, Millfield Theatre's seasonal offering holds its own among a raft of versions of this tale by making up in chutzpah what it lacks in budget. It also boasts a top-drawer turn from one of the country's rising entertainers. So good, in fact, is ventriloquist Paul Zerdin as Buttons, that his spots, incorporated semi- smoothly into the plot, not only pro vide ...

... Wizard of Oz Tunbridge Wells The stunningly attractive church conversion from Victorian gothic arches to primary colours which forms Trinity Theatre and Arts Centre, makes an ideal setting for this fresh, fast and fluent yellow brick road of a show. Based squarely on the familiar MGM film, this Wizard, directed by Dede McGarrity, reminds us just how good those old lyrics are. I'm afraid ...

... Aladdin Bridlington They don't come any nastier than Coronation Street's Terry Duckworth, which makes Nigel Pivaro the ideal Abanazar in this family panto at the Spa Theatre, presented and produced by Paul Holman. From his first entrance he is clearly a hit and his performance does not disappoint. In the title role Terry Gleed is excellent, his slight build and light movements concealing a ...

... Dick Whittington Torquay Princess Theatre's panto is a ramshackle affair. It is short on story. The standard scene on Highgate Hill, where Dick hears the bells calling him back to London, is omitted. The sketches are skimpy, and singing and dancing sequences are hardly a feature. A lot of time is taken up by Aiden J Harvey inducing audience response. They were will ing enough, but ...

... Santa and Nicolas Stirling It is Christmas Eve and Nicolas is bored with being left on his own to watch telly. He is fed up with his parents and wants a ski-board so he can play in the snow even if it only exists on the TV screen and in his imagination. So when he wakes up in the middle of the night, to find a strange girl in the sitting room who tells him how Santa is fed up because no one ...

... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Worthing What are the basic ingrediants required to make a good pan tomime? Music, mayhem and magic, plus glittering costumes, sparkling sets and a host of charac ters ranging from the bizarre to the beautiful and at the Pavilion Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs pretty much had the lot. Show creators Hammond Productions manages to sqeeze all the necessary ...

... The Snow Queen Hounslow Parasol's Richard Gill has adapted Hans Christian Andersen's tale of devilry and shattered glass as an adventure story for younger audiences, filling the eye with images of prancing white wolves, a giant Swan and a palace of glittering danger at the journey's end. but instead of breaking into dangerous splinters the Snow Queen's distorting mirror becomes an obsession ...

... Little Red Riding Hood Rotherham The spirit of pantomime is alive and well at the Civic Theatre, where Duggie Chapman's show is delight ing audiences, with local favourite Barry Cheese making a most appealing Muddles, gleeful, full of life and fun, yet sympathetic. Personable Rob Malone plays Prince with a light touch, with Ann Micklethwaite as a sweet Red Riding Hood, equipped with a strong ...