Sir Ian McKellen makes a triumphant return to pantomime damehood in this gleeful, willfully slapdash affair, which opened in Brighton on Saturday and moves to the West End this Thursday.
Wearing a series of increasingly garish frocks and using his own Burnley accent, the original great Knight out treats us to dance routines, a stream of innuendo that’s only just family-friendly, and snippets of Shakespeare, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, and Gandalf. “Orcs. ORCS!” he mutters, surveying the upper circle. Comedian John Bishop often looks incredulous at the sheer energy of his 83-year-old co-star and onstage wife.
