Wicked Witches Panto For Adults! - Review

Pleasance Theatre, London

**

Written and directed by Shane Shayshay Konno

Gigi Zahir

Leaping onto Wicked’s broomstick, Wicked Witches is the 2025 panto from the Pleasance. The producers have chosen to split the show into two separate versions, the Adult show plays to a strictly 18+ audience in the evenings while the Family iteration plays to the earlier houses.

Creating classy pantomime is a craft. Typically a show will play to a family crowd, frequently comprising school parties, and the humour has to be pitched very carefully. Saucy and edgy enough to make the grown-ups chuckle, but nothing that would make Granny (or the Headteacher) really blush. That's what a good family panto is all about - Oh yes it is!

Adult panto is a different ball-game, a no-holds-barred genre in which the gloves are (or should be) off. Its language and humour can be, and are expected to be, filthy. In adapting his family panto for an adult audience however, writer/director Shane Shayshay Konno has overreached himself and fallen very short. 

For an "adults-only show", the gags are lukewarm and the filth, smut and innuendo that would be expected is equally tepid. With a script that is more eye-rolling than eye-watering, the evening turns out to be more of a gender-focussed, politically-correct picket line than the festive, bawdy, offensive entertainment that it should be.

To be fair, there’s solid work from both Gigi Zahir as the Wicked Witch (with stunning makeup) as well as Eleanor Burke as the Good Witch. Zahir turns in a cracking take on Adele while Burke deliciously hams up her Glinda-esque character. 

The much vaunted celebrity cameos come from the (brilliant) Ian McKellen as Toto the dog, lobbing in as many canine-themed puns as his brief slot allows, and Jeremy Corbyn MP. Gracing the show as the Wizard of Oz-Lington, Corbyn's acting skill is matched only by his ability to win a general election. There is however a delicious irony in seeing a failed national politician (locally of course, Corbyn is revered by a majority of Islington's munchkins who think he's wonderful) play one of literature's most celebrated charlatans.

Booking tickets for the Family version is strongly recommended. With a two-hour running time to fill, it’s gotta be better than this!

Runs until 22nd December

(Family version runs until 28th December)

Photo credit: Ella Carmen Dale