"Twisted - The Untold Story of The Royal Vizier" by BJW Productions

View On Demand by tickets from www.bjwproductions.co.uk from 6 August 2021.

Online productions are getting better and better and this production again raises the bar. What a completely refreshing, and modern, take on the story of Aladdin and the 40 Thieves and is definitely NOT for the kids with plenty of swearing and adult content, but so very funny.

In short, everything in The Magic Kingdom is the fault of one man, Ja'far. It's his fault that the Magic Kingdom has gone "from happy to crappy", but he is dead set on getting things righted (if there is such a word). Ja'far found happiness with his dream wife, who falls pregnant, so he goes to visit The Sultan, who decides that Ja'far's wife would be "my wife now" - obviously not in the gentlemanly league, and steals her from Ja'far.

Ja'far's views on how to run the Kingdom are not following the same golden rule as the other employees and while trying to do the best he can for the Kingdom manages to make a mess of everything, which includes losing The Princess to the sex-mad thief, Aladdin. When the guards track her down he orders the guards to behead Aladdin, but then tricks him to retrieve a magic lamp from within a cave, telling the greedy "33 year old orphan" that he can keep all the gold in the cave if he just brings back the useless lamp found within.

Now while all of this is going off, the Prince Achmed, from the Land of Pixar, has been trying to woo The Princess, but she has set her tiger on him and he retreats back to Pixar with a rather sore derriere. He is hell bent on revenge and summons his army to march on The Magic Kingdom.

Meanwhile, Aladdin is also hell bent on a wooing The Princess, but is only wanting her for another notch on his bed-post. Aladdin has more sauce than Heinz (other condiment producers are available), especially with his song "Take Off Your Clothes", which bears a slight resemblance to a song that some may know called "A Whole New World".

Anyway, it all ends well for most of the characters in "Twisted" and I really do not want to give too much away with what else happens in this deliciously naughty plot as I'd love you to get a ticket and see this piece of online theatre for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

This is a musical and the songs are brilliantly written and every vocal performance is flawless. There are similarities between some of the songs, for instance, "Follow The Golden Rule" sounds an awful lot like "Friend In Me", strangely from "Aladdin". "No One Remembers Achmed" sounds like it could have come from "The Producers" soundtrack, and "Twisted" manages to bring in several musicals and Fairy Tale characters like Gaston, Cruella de Ville, The Lion King, Captain Hook and more.

The cast are incredibly talented, many of whom I've had the pleasure of seeing perform before,

Aiden Carson, who also directed this excellent piece of online theatre, like the rest, play several characters. Also like all of the other actors has a wonderfully versatile voice. That is nothing new to me as I've followed his career for a few years now and know of his talents well. He now shows what a talented Director he is also. Everything is kept tight and pacy, leaving space for the laughs that you can only expect to come from an online viewer. So much is amended with a Director when there is a live audience, which makes Directing an online production just that little bit more "hit and miss" for spacing for reactions.

Andrew Buxton is another actor I know through his lengthy back catalogue of work. Andrew extends his CV with this production, again playing several roles. As the Djinn, he extends nods to various classic film quotes from Taxi Driver, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Dirty Harry and even The Graduate. He also plays the role of The Sultan with a fascinating line of chat!

Ben Payne, as The Captain, as well as other roles, almost gets to catchphrase level with his laying blame on Ja'far, you almost come to expect it, although the character is not that predictable. This is also Ben's first professional credit. And a credit to his talent for accents as I did not hear a sign of Welsh in his voice!

Molly Hewitt-Richards is brilliant as the greedy, quite Kardashian-esque, Princess, especially with her song "I Just Want Everything... And More", highlighting a lovely comic edge, but when she duets with Ja'far in "The Power In Me", one of the serious ballads in this production, WOW! Molly also painted the set for "Twisted".

Talking of Ja'far, he is played by Eoin Callaghan. Eoin is a new name to me but comes with a lengthy theatrical CV and a voice made for musical theatre. Strong and controlled in all styles of singing in this musical. You can see that he has worked professionally in this business, although saying that blends in with all the other actors. What I mean to say is that the whole cast could be professional just looking at this production.

Owen Jones plays, among several other characters Prince Achmed. Can I say I love this character and Owen plays this role perfectly. Very camp and a lovely sense of comedy timing. I can't believe that this is Owen's professional debut as he is so at ease with comedy roles and being on stage. This man has a long career on stage from what I can see.

Emily Knight, as Sherrazade is delightful. Again Emily is someone I know of, and know what a brilliant vocalist she is, having witnessed several of her on stage work. 

Why have one Bridge in a musical when you can have two and both Emily and Jessica Bridge are also in this production, taking on several roles.

From names I know of, to one that I have not seen or heard of before. Conor Headley is brilliantly cocky as Aladdin. Again an actor who is extremely confident on stage and with his vocal ability. I can see lots of leading male roles in the future for Conor, and a following of ladies to match his big future. Great outfit for Aladdin as well!

A great band provided the backing, musically directed by the ever-smiley Ben Ward and the band consisting of Dave Adey (keys), Josh Wolfsohn (guitar/bass), Hayden Morrow (cello), Richie Dunne (violin) and Thomas Conroy (reeds).

The sound and lighting was perfection from Matt Cook and Harry Greatorex respectively.

The excellent camera work for this production is by Tom Johns and Aaron Marcus.

The production can be streamed by visiting BJW website www.bjwproductions.co.uk and getting a ticket to view, so get there now and experience one of the funniest takes on a classic panto/fairy tale that there has been. See these stars of tomorrow now, and in your own home.