There is plenty happening on the live entertainment front in the coming weeks to amuse everyone – young and old. While shows and pantos are always popular, you might get lucky and cadge last-minute tickets for that perfect holiday treat. If you’re not sure what to choose, fear not, our critics went along to the following headline shows, and these are our verdicts:
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, until Sunday, January 18th
Darryn Crosbie’s annual spectacular is a pantofied version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, with selected songs from Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s original film score fleshed out with contemporary pop numbers.
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Helix, Dublin, until Sunday, January 11th
The Theatreworx panto never veers far from the traditional form, and yet, with its well-honed script, it manages to never be formulaic, offering the most fun panto experience in Dublin year on year.
Ark Cultural Centre for Children, Temple Bar, Dublin, until December 30th
Branar’s seasoned adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’s beautiful children’s book, is about a star-obsessed boy who is determined to catch one of his own through any means necessary.
Cork Opera House, Cork, until January 18th
With enough dry ice to melt a glacier, this year’s Cork Opera House pantomime creates an appropriately mysterious, magical atmosphere of joyous expectation. It lifts all the high points from the ancient Aladdin fable, allowing “tweaks” to knit the plot into the coherence of a familiar locality.
Gate Theatre, Dublin, until January 18th
Claire O’Reilly’s lovely, deeply spooky production for the Gate, working from a robust adaptation by Neil Bartlett, confirms (as if confirmation were required) that the fable still has traction after 180 years. The imaginative staging, however, works new magic from that familiar material.
Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, until Saturday, January 10th
There’s more than a touch of pantomime to the theatrical composition of Moulin Rouge! The setting of late-19th-century Paris is as romantic as that of any fairy tale, the story borrows from familiar source material and Justin Levine’s mind-boggling score shifts restlessly between contemporary pop and rock classics. Make no mistake, though: this is a thoroughly adult affair.
Museum of Literature Ireland, Dublin, until Sunday, February 1st
This perfect story finds a wonderfully playful and resonant expression in one of the city’s great literary sites. It’s a production that honours Joyce without embalming him, letting his world breathe again. A must-see Christmas gem (if you’re lucky enough to get a ticket).
The Abbey Theatre, until Saturday, January 31st
Barbara Bergin’s new play is rooted in one place, yet covers an extraordinary amount of ground. Set in and around a tenement in a reimagined version of the “north city innards”, Dublin Gothic features more than 100 characters, performed by a cast of 19, over the course of three-and-a-half hours (with two intervals).
