The headline news first: the 2012 song whose inclusion seems mandatory in every pantomime (following the likes of “Born This Way” and “All The Single Ladies” in previous years) is, unsurprisingly, “Gangnam Style”. Fortunately, it seems a case more of allusion than full rendition: I haven’t yet seen a production use it for more than a few bars. I suppose it’s also unsurprising that the year of the London Olympics and Boris Johnson’s re-election should see an upturn in popularity for the panto tale of London’s legendary mayor. Susie McKenna last staged it at Hackney only five years ago, and even British-Asian company Tara Arts are getting in on the act with a rewriting centring on a young Gujarati wannabe-chef who arrives in London from distant climes, i.e. Blackburn in Lancashire. (For convenience this review uses the traditional character names rather than Tara’s revised versions.) Hackney may have a Hindu fairy to help Dick along, but Tara’s counterpart character even has four blue arms.
    
Aficionados of the bizarre rituals of panto have been wary that this is Hackney’s second successive year without Clive Rowe playing the dame. Why any talented actor/singer would choose to appear in Kiss Me, Kate under Trevor Nunn at the Old Vic rather than don grotesque drag and prat about in Hackney is beyond me, and that’s not sarcasm. Indeed, the title role here is played by someone who has made the same kind of choice, former musical Olivier Award-winner Joanna Riding. Both productions get points for maintaining the now-declining tradition of casting actresses as the “principal boy”, although both wear breeches rather than tights; still, Riding engages enthusiastically in thigh-slapping.
    
Rowe’s replacement Steve Elias is neither as generously built nor as untrammelled as Rowe (there ought to be an extreme weather event named Hurricane Clive) in the role of Sarah the Cook, but he possesses both energy and assurance in working the audience. Any shortfall is vigorously taken up by both Alderman Fitzwarren (Tony Whittle) and, surprisingly, the dastardly King Rat. Kat B has years of audience bonding experience (last time around in 2007 he played the “best mate” role of Idle Jack), so his villainy is expertly tempered by backchat and deadpan joking.
    
Something similar happens at Tara, with Sam Korbacheh (whose character is a kind of conflation of Fitzwarren and King Rat) getting almost as many laughs as Antony Bunsee’s well-padded cook. (Scriptwriter Harvey Virdi also gives Korbacheh an excessive series of risqué “Dick” puns; when valuables are hidden in Dick’s travelling pack to frame him, King Rat gives the instruction, “Feel Dick’s sack!”) There must be almost as much frenzy backstage at Tara, since the entire production is brought off with a cast of only six. At least they don’t always have to sing themselves, with live-performed “playback” numbers enabling them to lipsync on occasion. Yet Jatinder Verma’s production cannot shake a slight air of worthiness; I rather felt that most of the adults in the audience had taken a conscious decision to enjoy ourselves. For raucous yet polished fun (even if there is, as usual, half an hour too much of it), Hackney continues to see off challenges by the relative newcomers at the Lyric Hammersmith and retains the London laurels. Ding-dong!
     
Written for the Financial Times.