CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE Christmas season usually brings with it a surfeit of shows, and dramatic critics already sinking under the effects of too much food and drink find that a mental indigestion has been added to their more purely physical ills. The strain of keeping oneself in a perpetually festive spirit is immense—let alone that of having other people's festive spirit impinge on you. Christmas therefore tends to be an uncritical time of year. The best one can do is to note the shows without much hope of saying anything very original about them apart from the more obvious deviations from the Christmas norm, This year deviation has taken the form of remarkably few pantomimes. There are, it is true, some old favourites about: Mother Goose at the Palladium and Dick Whittington at the King's, Hammersmith, but these are in the minority. ,At the Scala John Fernald has put on an entirely new production of Peter Pan which both streamlines and speeds up the usual, consecrated version, and Toad of Toad Hall at the Prince's is a very adult piece of work indeed which may succeed with children of nine or over, but is unlikely to do so with those very much younger. Leo McKern makes a fine Toad, and his beatific smile as the curtain falls and the weasels and stoats dance round him singing his praises is something to be seen. A. A. Milne's adaptation of the book is, of course, slightly more sentimental than the 'original, but this is possibly due to the necessary selection and heightening for dramatic purposes. This more or less completes the list of pantomimes, since I am sufficient of a purist not to count Noddy in Toyland at the Stoll. This is graced not merely by Noddy and Big-Ears, but (at one matinee at least) by their creator Enid Blyton appear- ing on the stage in person. I am assured that young, children revel in this.
Shows, not more adult, but more grown-up, include Happy Holiday at the Palace—a Musical version of The Ghost Train, which provided a happy holiday for nobody, least of all for the pleasant cast, and had the 'distinction of presenting a live piglet for the first time on the English stage. Fortify yourself before you go. At the Victoria Palace the Crazy Gang continue to represent till teal old music-hall tradition with cracks al everything from Barbara Kelly to honeY', moon couples. I must say I enjoyed thene,' even if they have been weakened by disappearance of Chesney Allen. Interest' ingly the finale of the first part was a scien,P, fiction ensemble—are we going to see in°, advent of the space-ship on the stage? Wh about a science-fiction pantomime? Lauri: Lister's Pay the Piper at the Saville fati/ti between two stools: on the one hall Elisabeth Welch and Ian Wallace give Ill a number of 'little revue' turns (includial one that I had already seen in an undef:, graduate production at Edinburgh) and 01' the other Elsie and Doris Waters prodol something much nearer to traditiolof music hall. The result was that one half 0,4 the audience was laughing at one part the programme and the other half at other. It was all very confusing. And that's the lot. Or is it? No, I ha,., forgotten the Players' production of Planche' Sleeping Beauty and the musical entertalet; ment Top Note at the Arts. The piaye t come out of any comparison the better, there is hardly space to go into that ne)'i Besides I am slumping over the typewrit_,e, Still, Christmas comes but once a Yc" (thank goodness).
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