Music: Robert Hyman<\/b><\/p>\n
Lyrics: Vikki Stone and Robert Hyman<\/b><\/p>\n
Writers and Directors: Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu<\/b>
Mother Goose may be one of the older pantomime stories out there, but over the decades, it\u2019s fallen by the wayside. Commercial pantos have instead chosen to focus on stories that are more instantly familiar because Disney turned them into animated features.<\/p>\n
But that relative unfamiliarity brings with it a greater sense of freedom. Writers and directors Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu craft in Mama Goose a panto that contains most of the genre\u2019s staple scenarios but with a fresh, often location-specific twist.<\/p>\n
Duane Gooden\u2019s Mama Goose is a larger-than-life Stratford woman whose goose-rearing abilities cause Ellie Seaton\u2019s Wholesome Thoughtful Fairy (WTF) to leave the galaxy\u2019s last remaining golden goose in her care, in the hope it will keep it safe from WTF\u2019s nemesis, BFF (Mya Fox-Scott\u2019s Bougie Fierce Fairy).<\/p>\n
The golden eggs that Ch\u00e9 Walker\u2019s Gary lays transform Mama Goose\u2019s fortunes. But instead of being wise with her money, as son Jack (Marcellus Whyte) suggests, and paying off her large tax bill, Mama switches her shopping habits from the Stratford Centre to Westfield, goes on a spending spree, and becomes an Instagram influencer.<\/p>\n
Laced through all the silliness are plenty of sharp political points. Mama declares that now she is rich, she won\u2019t need to pay tax; the antipathy residents struggling to pay the bills feel towards Westfield\u2019s shrine to consumerism is a plot point as much as it is a punchline. And in the second act, as Mama, Jack and Jack\u2019s new girlfriend AI Jill \u2013 an anime-style bot created by BFF to infiltrate the Goose household, amusingly brought to life by Charlie Cameron \u2013 fly off to Gooseland to reduce Gary from BFF\u2019s factory-farming clutches, there is biting commentary about SpaceX and those billionaires who present themselves as philanthropists but who have accrued their wealth by exploiting others.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk, in particular, comes in for a deserved kicking. Panto\u2019s traditional \u201cghosties and ghoulies\u201d skit, in which the lead cast are picked off, has the abductor being a demonic version of Musk, hypnotising characters one by one into believing he\u2019s a good guy.<\/p>\n
But as deeply as Stone and Munyevu\u2019s political satire runs, they always take care to keep the level appropriate for a rollicking family panto. Walker\u2019s Gary, a warm East End geezer, has an engaging rapport with the audience. Cameron\u2019s tonal and physical delivery continues to delight throughout, as the robot who, through contact with humanity, achieves Pinocchio-like growth, becoming much more like a real girl.<\/p>\n
In the title role, Duane Gooden\u2019s dame is in some ways the weakest link of the show. While often nailing the role of the attention-grabbing matriarch the script desires, at other times there\u2019s a hesitancy and nervousness that, one hopes, will dissipate as this show\u2019s run continues.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Seaton and Fox-Scott\u2019s relationship as fairy frenemies has more than a whiff of Wicked about it. Cynthia Erivo is name-checked at least once, and BFF\u2019s nail make-up mirrors the Elphaba actress\u2019s own. Fox-Scott, vocally the strongest performer of the night, even delivers a mightily impressive rendition of Erivo\u2019s take on the war cry conclusion to Defying Gravity.<\/p>\n
Supporting actors Grace Venus and Jerome Lincoln provide a variety of supporting roles, from a licentious taxman who pushes the boundaries of how risqu\u00e9 a family panto can be to a hilarious spoof of pop star \u201castronaut\u201d Katy Perry.<\/p>\n
It all adds up to a show that genuinely has much to offer all ages. For those aware of Stratford and the financial pressures felt by anyone living in Britain (especially in Newham), the script offers much in the way of recognition. For the younger audiences, the silliness and spectacle work too. Mama Goose lays a golden egg for panto audiences, setting the bar for what a show rooted in its location should be.<\/p>\n
Runs until 3 January 2026<\/b>
\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music: Robert Hyman Lyrics: Vikki Stone and Robert Hyman Writers and Directors: Vikki Stone and Tonderai Munyevu Mother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,188534,188535,188536,188537,393,188538,4884,188539,257,188540,188541,188542,169820,6080,188543,118401,188544,16,15,188545],"class_list":{"0":"post-601037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-charlie-cameron","10":"tag-che-walker","11":"tag-duane-gooden","12":"tag-ellie-seaton","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-grace-venue","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-jerome-lincoln","17":"tag-london","18":"tag-mama-goose","19":"tag-marcellus-whyte","20":"tag-mya-fox-scott","21":"tag-panto","22":"tag-review","23":"tag-robert-hyman","24":"tag-stratford-east","25":"tag-tonderai-munyevu","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom","28":"tag-vikki-stone"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115632380705532289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}