Published: Tuesday, 30th December, 2008 12:00pm

Aladdin and his magic carpet

Audiences in Mullingar were brought to new heights in the run-up to Christmas as Aladdin and his magic carpet wowed those who were lucky enough to secure tickets to this high in demand show in the Mullingar Arts Centre last week.

And the hype was well founded, with theatrical stunts that left kids, big and small, open-mouthed, wonderful singing voices to take your breath away, and a good measure of local jokes that had everyone laughing out loud from beginning to end.

Mark Irwin and Niamh O"Shea shone in their lead roles as Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, with vocals that could challenge any in the Gaiety, but the real stars of the show had to be those who raised the orphaned Aladdin, Widows Twanky and Wishy Washy, played spectacularly by Paul Doolin and John "Banjo" Quinn.

A double act like this one is hard to find, but for years, the two (one pint sized and the other giant by comparison) have been working well together on the local stage, and once again they had people rolling the aisles with their jabs at Brian Cowen and the Irish recession, local councillors Mick Dollard, Camillus Glynn and Donie Cassidy, even Michael O"Leary didn"t go unscathed.

The town of Mullingar wasn"t forgotten in their dry wit, as the magic carpet approached its bright lights, recognisable from the air only by the sight of a police helicopter overhead.

Local veteran actor Alan Conroy stood out in his role as the evil Jafar, who at every turn tried to quash Aladdin and the Princess Jasmine"s love for one another, and was the character that everyone just loved to boo.

His evil plans were helped along by his two stupid, but very loveable, side-kicks Knick and Knack (even), played by Aidan Ennis and Joe Early, who humoursly failed time after time in their own fool-hardy plans.

True love always needs a helping hand to succeed, and that was provided in good measure by three genies, Genius (Fionnuala Kenny), Geniah (Joanne Mac Donagh) and Genidum (Sandra Dolan), who each appeared as their names suggest, in a puff of smoke at the rub of Aladdin"s lamp. Their energy on stage knew no bounds as they bounced and sang their way to securing Aladdin"s happiness.

The main man of Christmas, none other than Santa Claus, played by himself, also had a role to play in true love"s path, as well as Mrs. Claus (Gillian Flynn) and saw to it that Aladdin and his friends had a rocking good time in the North Pole - where they arrived through some misadventure of Genidum.

Aladdin and Jasmine also had their own personal minders, Ali Literation (Gary Nolan) who managed to begin every word with the letter he began each sentence with, and Cleo (Jemma MacNamee), who sometimes rushed her lines, but sparkled as the lady in waiting to the Princess Jasmine.

Another who deserves a special mention, is young Billy Gilleran for his solo of The Snowman, which saw Billy rise into the air, hand-in-hand with Snowman, and never missing a high note. And also, Aoife Gavin, who was the original Genius, before she had to drop out of the show due to appendicitis.

All in all, this show had everything you could ask of a panto, with great choreography headed by Siobhán Murphy, a brilliant orchestra led by Angela Lynch, a terrific script written by Paul Doolin and Steve Ennis, and smart direction by Sean Lynch.

As pantos go however, this one did seem to stretch a bit in time, particularly in the first act. This could have been prevented perhaps by shorter versions of song numbers.

The stage effect of smoke was overused in places, to the extent that sometimes it was difficult to see characters on stage. A few mike difficulties played havoc with some performances, as in the case of Alan Conroy and his number, I put Spell on You, which was inaudible over the orchestra. But, instead of taking from his overall performance, showed the talented and well experienced actor that he is, dealing with the difficulties admirably, and managing to incorporate them into the humour over of the show.

No show goes without its problems, and night to night, these can differ in origin, as is the nature of a live production.

So, once again, a terrific performance from those of the Mullingar Panto Group, and I look forward to their next Christmas project which is set to be Peter Pan.