For many people across east Suffolk the start of the New Wolsey's Rock n Roll Panto heralds the start of the Christmas season in Ipswich - and this year's production won't disappoint!
Sleeping Beauty is a vibrantly-colourful energetic powerhouse of two hours of music and laughter that the audience laps up.
For anyone who hasn't been to a rock 'n' roll panto, it's rather different from a traditional show in that all the actors double-up as musicians to provide the music during the show.
And most of the actors play more than one role - although it really doesn't take the audience long to understand what is going on in the show.
In this year's show the pillars that hold it all together are the two dames - Craig Anderson as kindly Rosie and Max Gallagher as evil sister Thornica who casts the spell that leads to Princess Aurora's 100-year-long sleep.
Mya Fox-Scott is a delightful Princess - but in this version of the story the relationship with Milo the Dragon, played by Laura Gomez Gracia is more central than that with Prince Toby - played by Alexander Zane.
The music is absolutely central to the panto with numbers from the Monkees to Guns n Roses via Peter Andre and Coldplay!
The audience was laughing from start to finish at the show even though I suspect that writer Vikki Stone had been collecting cracker jokes for years before finishing her script - but that's what panto is all about after all.
There were a couple of times where I thought the production might tighten up a bit during the run - the slapstick kitchen scene in the first act and the audience participation inflatable sword section after the break.
But overall Sleeping Beauty is tremendous entertainment and a great way to get the Christmas season well and truly started in Ipswich.
