IT’S fortunate that in restoring the reputation of the Everyman and Playhouse to its former glory, the current management team did not discard the rock ’n ’roll Christmas panto.

For where else would audiences get their annual fix of extreme silliness, slapstick comedy, terrible puns and dazzling costumes, set to a soundtrack of pop songs sung and played by the actors live on stage?

While the formula stays the same, the show outdoes itself year after year and last night was no exception.

Dick Whittington – renamed “That’s What I Call Meow-sic” for the two-month run – gave writers Sarah Nixon and Mark Chatterton great scope for creating a plot that strayed from the original fairytale yet stayed true to its essence.

It began with a prologue told in projections and sliding scenery, which described how Egyptian goddess Kitty Litter had trapped the evil King Rat in an underground city.

Enter a pair of modern day intrepid explorers who remove a powerful, glowing stone from a desert tomb and the rodent villain is released.

Naturally, Dick Whittington is the hero of the piece, played by Joseph Attenborough, who wouldn’t look out of place in a boy band.

But it’s the women who really save the day, in a display of girl power Scary Spice would struggle to muster.

Sarah Vezmar is fabulously feline as Purdy Cat, the reincarnated Kitty Litter come back to help Dick defeat his nemesis, while Karen Paullada is the feisty explorer Scout, his love interest with attitude.

There is romance all round as seven-time pantomime dame Francis Tucker, as Dotty Doolittle, is wooed by Scout’s father Warren Fitzwarren in a rendition of the Carpenters’ Close to You complete with toy bunnies swaying in time to the music.

Rock ’n’ roll panto regular Adam Keast plays not one but two Fitzwarren brothers, switching between curly orange and yellow wigs in a frenzy of one liners.

And there’s no local audience that wouldn’t cheer for a Lord Mayor of London whose first speech in office is about wanting to go to Liverpool.