The Three Little Pigs, Palace Theatre, W1

reviewed for The Times, 12 August 2015

Daniel Buckley, Taofique Folarin, Alison Jiear and Leanne Jones in The Three Little Pigs

George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have history with pork. Betty Blue Eyes, their musical based on the pig-rustling film A Private Function, was a droll delight (the pig was voiced by Kylie Minogue). When Betty Blue Eyes closed early in adverse commercial conditions, it was one of the great injustices in recent West End history.

Now our animal-mad duo are back in the West End with their cheery children’s adaptation of The Three Little Pigs. If it loses some of the adult wit of Stiles and Drewe’s previous farmyard shows — Honk! also notable among them — it’s nonetheless warm, comforting and capably executed.

The biggest name is Simon Webbe, of the boyband Blue, as the Big Bad Wolf, although he may have been booked more for his recognition factor with headline writers than with the wee target audience (Reuben, aged 4, has never heard of Blue, but found the Big Bad Wolf “the best kind of scary”).

Webbe, resplendent in slashed leather with furred insets, is clearly on a test run for his panto debut later this year, and if he struggles to wring more than camp menace out of Drewe’s thinner lines, he also proves that his famed vocal talent is genuine and alluring.

Elsewhere, too, it’s as a musical experience that this production should be cherished. Alison Jiear brings a calm, brightening quality to her soothing notes as Mother Pig; Taofique Folarin, Leanne Jones and Daniel Buckley bounce along merrily as her offspring, Bar, Bee and Q (geddit?).

The morality of wolf-killing is sensibly discussed and Jason Denvir’s set comes into its own in the second act as the houses of straw, stick and brick are revealed. Steel yourself against demands to purchase the £3.50 flimsy paper flag, which Reuben destroyed by the finale, sit near the front of the oversized Palace Theatre, then enjoy. Solid summer fare.