Review: Peter Pan, Churchill Theatre, Bromley

by Andy Gray

Water pistol fights, shooting flames and a flying Scouser make for a mixed bag of panto fun in Peter Pan.

Former Brookside actress Jennifer Ellison makes a feisty fist of the lead role. The pint-sized Liver Bird puts added tough into the little boy who would never grow up, but it’s a performance not without grace.

Her angelic glide across the theatre’s rafters, scattering magic dust upon the awestruck audience below was among the show’s few magical moments.

Andrew Agnew, better known as Balamory’s PC Plum, appears as Smee and the show’s main storyteller. As a CBeebies veteran, he knows how to tickle young tums and his boundless energy was put to spectacular, slapstick use during a superbly choreographed – and often dangerous-looking – four-man pommel horse routine.

Captain Hook was treated to a dramatic X-Factor-style introduction of flames, booming voiceover and thundering classical music. Ace Bhatti – aka EastEnders’ Yusef Khan – played the evil pirate leader in a performance which, despite the incendiary entrance, lacked fire and menace. Indeed, the only scene to illicit any real howls of delight or horror from the audience was when cast members run amok among the stalls with giant water pistols.

Even the beautifully-crafted set, with its sprinkling of special effects, proved a lot less thrilling than the toy gun interlude – a real squirt in the face for the talented stage designers. Overall, this Peter Pan felt like a production waiting to fly.

Peter Pan runs until Sunday, January 6 in the Churchill Theatre, Bromley. Tickets £14 to £31. Box office 0844 8717696.