Theater review: Little Red Riding Hood

by Arnold Wayne Jones of Dallas Voice

The difference between being British and gay, I am fond of saying, is more a question of degree than of kind. As proof, look no further than the U.K.’s traditional Christmas panto, a children’s play filled with more cross-dressing and double entendres than a Dame Edna performance.

Last year, when Theatre Britain announced it was cutting back on its production schedule, the one show they left untouched was this chestnut, which roasts on the open fire of laughter at the KD Studio Theatre.

This year’s world premiere — they are almost always world premieres, written expressly for the company by Jackie Mello-Guin — is Little Red Riding Hood, and for the first time in my recollection does not star Mark Shum in the “dame” role: the outrageous dowager who usually steals most of the laughs.

Happily, director Sue Roberts-Birch has found a suitable replacement in Kevin Scott Keating as Mother Hood (even the names are puns), who gets to doff off lines like, “I like a good Dallas Cowboy — all those tight ends, and lots of sacks,” to the titters of the adults and the oblivious delight on the kiddies. The panto may we be the ideal entertainment for alternative families: campy but as mild as brie.

The design of the show is a treasure. Darryl Clement’s set glows a wondrous fluorescent sheen under black lights in the opening number, including hundreds of handmade leaves dotting the trees. Robin Armstrong’s costumes are even better, especially Mother Hood’s teapot-inspired dress that looks as though it might actually boil over at any minute.

The plot? Per tradition, it’s a twisted take on the familiar legend (imagine a live-action version of Jay Ward’s Fractured Fairy Tales), hammed up by a girl (Danielle Pickard) playing the male lead and romancing Mother Goose’s most famous Meals on Wheels service, Red (Jad B. Saxton, pictured) while jazzy, Disney-esque wolves sing and dance and get hissed at.

Live theater where the actors want you to boo them? That’s the kind of audience participation I can endorse.