All singing, all dancing panto

Snow White, at The Hexagon, Reading, until Sunday, January 8

According to German historian Eckhard Sander, the story of Snow White dates back to a 16th-century German countess, Margarete, who moved to Brussels, fell in love with a prince and was poisoned by her stepmother, who disapproved of the match, thereby inspiring the fairy tale by the Grimms.

The pantomime at The Hexagon this year has all the usual ingredients – Snow White (Sarah Accomando) looking bright and colourful in her various costumes, Karl Loxley as Prince Michael, smart and courtly and the two funny men, Paul Morse as Dame Dolly Mixture and Justin Fletcher as Jingles the Jester. Katie Cameron had fun as the Wicked Queen hamming it up in front of the mirror and planning Snow White's downfall very noisily indeed.

The usual set-pieces were on display, with a very messy cooking sequence that involved spraying a creamy mixture all over Jingles the Jester's face. Then there was the ghost routine, with the spirit eventually frightening two of the men off only to be scared off itself by one glance at the dame. The panto jokes were much the same as usual with many of them delivered by Dame Dolly Mixture with a Basil Brush type "boom, boom".

He did tell a rarely heard one though, about the man who painted his wife with cheese - he double glossed 'er.

As to the rest, it was a noisy, colourful, star-flashing extravaganza, with singing and dancing that delighted kids in the audience from age four to 94. Towards the end, four little children from the audience were led on stage and usually when this happens they freeze and can't move. Not so this little group, they shouted and yelled and one four-year-old gave a twirl in her sparkly skirt and yelled out her name at the top of her voice. They're getting bigger, bolder and louder, it seems, and the pantos are getting livelier and more colourful every year.

Snow White was well-presented by director Stephen Boden and choreographer Ashley Nottingham, and all the unseen backstage crew who make it all happen every year.

DEREK ANSELL