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Aladdin - The Magical Adventure!
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham
Monday 10th December 2007
Reviewed by Freddie Wilkinson
Well here we go again with another review of a Chuckle Brothers touring show; to
say that they churn them out would be unfair as each show is fresh and original,
with a great deal of time, effort, and money being put in to each of them.
The main reason for going was to see magic in the form of Safire a.k.a Stuart
and Jayne Loughland, the fact that we also got to see the Chuckle Brothers was
just an extra treat.
In my previous MagicWeek review of a Chuckle Brothers show I did mention it was
a shame that Safire had to work front cloth in a sort of thrown on stage
fashion, as if to just kill time whilst scenery was changed. Thankfully this had
now changed and Stuart and Jayne were now fully fledged cast members with all of
the magic fitting into the plot of the show.
The story was pretty much as known although one major change had been made to
the end, but more on that later. The Chuckle Brother were playing the roles of
Aladdin and Wishee Washee, Stuart and Jayne were the Genie of the Lamp and the
Slave of the Ring, and a whole host of other very talented actors and dancers
made up the rest of the cast.
I did notice that during the show the Chuckle Brothers seemed to have an added
bounce in their step, maybe it was due to the fact they were playing to a packed
house of 2200 people or maybe they had over dosed on Sanatogen beforehand?
Whichever way, it certainly added a great deal to the show.
Another change was instead of relying on the usual bucket load of sight gags,
pratt falls and slap stick, this time they had the added bonus of a very sharp
script which had some genuine laugh out loud moments in it. Pink and floppy and
Kelly Osbourne spring to mind but I suppose you had to be there!!!
Magic performed included a sword box routine complete with special guest star
and a heads off illusion, all as ever done to perfection along to a thumping
Danny Elfman theme tune in the background.
A great scene was when Stuart as the all magical Genie is asked to demonstrate
his magic powers - cue a hand flasher, to which the Chuckle Brothers reply “Is
that it? You won’t get much work in the clubs around our way with that!”
The first half came to a close with Safire performing their ever changing UV
act; how they come up with so many new ideas from show to show I will never
know.
During the spot a whole host of characters took to the stage including a fire
breathing dragon singing the Prodigy’s ‘Fire starter’, a day glow spider with
great moving eyes, and a huge centipede, or was it a millipede singing that
Proclaimers hit. The best part had to be a flying carpet and rider that has
probably not been seen since the heyday of Emerson and Jayne. I know during the
interval it was certainly the main talking point whilst queuing for the toilet,
that and the fact the reoccurring character of Esiah (eyes-higher) had made a
special appearance also.
He is getting quite a cult following, or so I’m told among the many students
attending the numerous shows?
The highlight of the second half for me was to see the Chuckle Brothers version
of the classic Wilson, Keppel and Betty sand dance routine re-created live on
stage, here is a link to an old clip of them along with their older brothers
doing the very same -
You Tube.
So after two fun packed hours of comedy, magic, and song the show sadly came to
a close, this time though with a slightly different ending to normal in that
Aladdin didn’t get girl? Instead Princess Jasmine went off hand in hand with her
female friend So Shy singing ‘A whole new world’ - nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say
no more!!!
The next planned show which will also feature the magic of Safire throughout is
‘Indiana Chuckles & the Kingdom of the Mythical Sulk’. (Great title)
The whopping 50+ date tour starts on February 9th and runs until June 15th 2008,
and if it is anything like past efforts it will be well worth your while
spending a few pennies to have a pretty much guaranteed great night out.
You could even take the kids?
If you can’t wait that long have a look on Amazon as a couple of the past
efforts are now available on DVD complete with the Safire guest spots intact -
Click Here.
© Freddie Wilkinson, December 2007