Mother Goose – Theatre Royal, Brighton

Ian McKellen and John Bishop in Mother Goose at the Theatre Royal, Brighton and Touring. Picture: Manuel Harlan

Mother Goose was reviewed at Theatre Royal, Brighton. A season at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London (15 December 2022-29 January 2023) will be followed by a UK and Ireland tour.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Two veterans of the stage. A stand-up comic and a great Shakespearean actor. A stellar cast of seasoned and up and coming performers. Fab-u-lous frocks, hats, animal costumes and animatronics. A very adult script by Jonathan Harvey, loaded with innuendo and topical references that will go over the heads of younger audiences, weaving Shakespeare into the mix.  Add great direction by Cal McCrystal and choreography by Lizzi Gee (who impresses every time I see her work). Costumes and set by Liz Ascroft. Stir well and it all comes together in a rollercoaster of fun.

At its heart are two performers from very different disciplines. John Bishop warms up, telling us he is there as himself in case we don’t recognise him later on in costume when he does ‘acting’. He warns us that we have a lot to live up to as previous audiences have been enthusiastic, exhorting us to “enjoy yourselves as this is the most fun you can have tonight in Brighton without having to apologise in the morning!”

Bishop is warm and endearing as Vic Goose, husband of Mother Goose – the couple run a sanctuary for animals in a shuttered Debenhams store. Oscar Conlon-Morrey is their doltish son Jack, an excellent foil with his physical comedy, excelling in the kitchen scene with his misinterpretation of the instructions in a recipe.

When Ian McKellen as Mother Goose enters in the first of a series of increasingly glamorous frocks as their fortunes improve, he bears an uncanny resemblance to 1970s TV comic star Hylda Baker. The interplay between Mother Goose and Vic is at the heart of the show, and operates on many different levels, their real life personas interacting with the script, a gentle mocking of their contrasting acting experience. McKellen is extraordinary at 83, his costume and wig changes, including several done on stage in quick time, must be exhausting. Having recently played Lear and Hamlet, his Mother Goose is a human creation, not a caricatured Dame.

One mustn’t give too much away, as much of the pleasure is from the unexpected. A plot that twists and turns. We get a good and bad fairy with great vocals, one light and shade, the other with a cracking whip, Sharon Ballard and Karen Mavundukure, and just when you think it’s just another panto convention… but ssshhh. Mustn’t give too much away. Genevieve Nicole shines as Puss and a Queen of a different sort. Simbi Akande as Jill is straight out of a City Bank, and Adam Brown (Goat) comes into his own as a wonderfully camp King.

And then there’s Anna-Jane Casey as Cilla Goose. Last seen by this writer as a searingly moving Dot in Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park, here having great fun as Cilla Quack. “Is this duvet goose down? It’s very triggering.” The plot twists and turns but when sold to the bad fairy and imprisoned as prisoner 24601, with huge balls bouncing over the heads of the stalls audience in a nod to cult 1970s series The Prisoner, Casey channels her inner Streisand with a show-stopping rendition of ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’.

As Cilla lays her golden eggs and Mother Goose moves up in the world, wealth proves not to be enough, and she heads off in search of fame, causing unhappiness. And then it all resolves in the best tradition, a singalong sending us happy into the night.

Musical direction is by James Keay, and we get everything from Abba tracks to ‘One’ from A Chorus Line and ‘Sweet Caroline’.

This a slick well-drilled production, the ad-libs and asides are bawdy and timed to perfection. The political gags will no doubt alter through its run. The banter between McKellen and Bishop is a joy and the Shakespearean interpolation near the end, from both stars, adds a welcome moment of poignancy.

All I can add is to rush in a most unseemly manner for this seasonal treat, touring to Easter, as once word spreads it’s sure to be a sell out.

Leon Ferguson