Dick Whittington, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Sally Lindsay, Leanne Campbell, Eric Potts, Liam Mellor, Kurtis Stacey, Warren Donnelly, Pete Price, Hayley Goold

“Big” is the first thing that springs to mind when taking a seat at The Liverpool Empire for this year’s Pantomime, Dick Whittington, and that’s exactly what the show delivers: Big laughs, Big fun, Big songs, Big costumes and – above all – some Big performances that will have everybody cheering from start to finish.

The Empire is the biggest theatre in the district and it deserves the biggest of shows at Christmas, something which has been missing for a few years in all honesty, but this year it fairly crackles with pace and vim and vigour thanks to a quite literally Cracking script by Eric Potts, who also delivers superbly as Sarah the Cook in a myriad of fantastic costumes created by Holly Roberts.

The glitzy couture of Christmas is very much at the forefront in this production, with the bauble-esque quality of the clothing matched on every level by the sheer size of the settings which simply drip with quality and so add extra warmth to proceedings which are already cranked up to fever pitch.

Sally Lindsay is marvellous as Fairy Fazakerly and it’s a wonder that she is making her panto debut so much does she seem to enjoying herself. Kurtis Stacey and Empire Panto Veteran Leanne Campbell seep chemistry as Jack and Alice and their performance of Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud is magical.

As Idle Jack Liam Mellor is tireless in getting some pretty exhausted jokes to do the final mile successfully, whereas Warren Donnelly as the nasty King Rat must go down as one of the finest Panto Baddies ever to have set foot on this illustrious stage.

Yet it is the use of technology that many will take away with them, with a five minute 3D sequence that outshines many and is something some of the larger movies studios could learn from. The whoops and gasps and oohs this sequence brings about from young and not so young are a joy to hear and gives the show as a whole something of an edge that others will find difficult to better.

Chris High