Treasure Island ** TNT
Lily Allen’s dad Keith takes to the West End boards for the first time in his acting career, with his leg encased in a cumbersome prosthesis and a parrot (a squawky mechanical specimen) sporadically perched on his shoulder.
Yup, it’s that time of year again, but Ken Ludwig’s rather prosaic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic children’s tale is poised precariously somewhere between panto, straight play and musical. The bad guys aren’t particularly scary, the scenery (some rope rigging, a few barrels and floaty video projections) cut-price and, despite a couple of lively numbers and the requisite amount of yo ho hoing, there’s a distinct lack of dramatic power in the retelling of this story of mutiny on the high seas.
Allen obviously relishes the role of the rogue pirate who dupes Michael Legge’s uncharismatic young Jim into believing he’s fatherly friend rather than foe and Tony Bell (having made a brief early appearance as Billy Bones) reappears to add a touch of dignity as Captain Smollett.
But sadly there’s little gold to be found in this particular Treasure Island, and the timing — with real pirates holding the Sirius Star to ransom off the coast of Somalia — only serves to underlines its underwhelming sense of derring-do.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SW1 (0845-481 1870) Until February 28. £45 -£20
Lily Allen’s dad Keith takes to the West End boards for the first time in his acting career, with his leg encased in a cumbersome prosthesis and a parrot (a squawky mechanical specimen) sporadically perched on his shoulder.
Yup, it’s that time of year again, but Ken Ludwig’s rather prosaic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic children’s tale is poised precariously somewhere between panto, straight play and musical. The bad guys aren’t particularly scary, the scenery (some rope rigging, a few barrels and floaty video projections) cut-price and, despite a couple of lively numbers and the requisite amount of yo ho hoing, there’s a distinct lack of dramatic power in the retelling of this story of mutiny on the high seas.
Allen obviously relishes the role of the rogue pirate who dupes Michael Legge’s uncharismatic young Jim into believing he’s fatherly friend rather than foe and Tony Bell (having made a brief early appearance as Billy Bones) reappears to add a touch of dignity as Captain Smollett.
But sadly there’s little gold to be found in this particular Treasure Island, and the timing — with real pirates holding the Sirius Star to ransom off the coast of Somalia — only serves to underlines its underwhelming sense of derring-do.
Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SW1 (0845-481 1870) Until February 28. £45 -£20
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