Originally published by L.S. Media. December 15th 2010.

Cast: Pamela Anderson, Les Dennis, Mark Moraghan, Pete Price, Dani Rayner, Marc Mulcahey, Sean Kearns, Djalenga Scott, Conleth Kane.

For the second year running the Empire Theatre pulled off a masterstroke of casting and persuaded one of the Hollywood glitterati to be the main draw at their Christmas spectacular pantomime. Last year, Liverpool was treated to the sight of Henry Winkler playing Captain Hook to great acclaim; this year treading the boards of the Empire was Baywatch star Pamela Anderson in the wonderful story of Aladdin.

The story itself is nearly as old as time itself and one that continually manages to thrill audiences of all ages and leaves them with the magic that is sometimes needed beyond measure at this time of the year.

The set design and stage usage was one that deserves much mention. Both sumptuous and warming, there was enough glamour for the audience to get swept away in the whole procession without going overboard into the realm of sweetness for sweetness sake.

Alongside the wardrobe and stage company, the other heroes of the night were the musicians whose daring choices of some seemingly ad-lib notes had the audience laughing just as hard at this as some of the jokes that were used during the performance.

No pantomime held in Liverpool would be complete without the ever bubbly Les Dennis and a veritable who’s who of Liverpool stars, which included Mark Moraghan as the particularly evil Abanazar and Liverpool legend Pete Price as the Emperor who dealt with the minor microphone malfunction with his usual good humour and grace.

Les Dennis is rightly considered a Liverpool and national treasure and his attitude to the younger members of the audience is always one of joy to behold, he always manages to make them feel so calm when they bring any on stage to join in with the fun that it makes you wish to be a child yourself once more to part of the enchanting moment.

The star of the show, Pamela Anderson, may not have been on stage for very long but when she did appear her presence was keenly felt and herself deprecation at her previous acting jobs and her sometimes public persona was nothing short of incredible and would have made a lot of people see her for the person she actually is, very warm and very, very funny.

A truly wonderful show and once more the bar has been set incredibly high for next year’s pantomime which will be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Ian D. Hall