Who’s the biggest star of this glitzy show, written and directed by the veteran panto producer Paul Elliott? Is it John Barrowman, aka Doctor Who’s and Torchwood’s dashing Captain Jack? Is it the Daleks? Or is it the 3-D special effects, which bring the genie to life literally before your eyes? It’s a close-run thing, but Barrowman garners the loudest cheers.

Anyone who has ever seen him perform on the musical-theatre stage will know that he is an accomplished song-and-dance man. But it’s his television appearances, as a talent-show judge as well as an actor, that have made him a household name, and here his very presence sends the crowd into a squealing frenzy. And he delivers: his voice and movement are smooth and effortless, his teeth gleam, he exudes wholesome charm. There’s something slightly sterile about the performance; Barrowman’s a consummate professional, but he doesn’t generate much sense of fun, and his joshing about fighting off infatuated grown-up fans is somewhat self-regarding. As far as filling Aladdin’s tight trousers and twinkly tunics is concerned, though, he’s more than up to the job.

He has an enjoyably evil adversary in Pete Gallagher’s Abanazer, an intergalactic villain out to find the lamp, wed Lila McConigley’s pretty Princess Yasmin and take over the world. But not everyone is as entertaining. Don Maclean is a tame, lacklustre Widow Twankey, while the comic double-act the Grumbleweeds, as a pair of Chinese policeman, are very hard work. Their jokes are stale, and their lazy routines too reliant on feeble impersonations — of Ozzy Osborne, Cher and Little Britain’s Lou and Andy, among others. Masashi Fujimoto, on the other hand, is a revelation as the Emperor — not when he’s doing the gruff-voiced, wild-eyed Oriental shtick that he’s famous for on Banzai, but when he gives surprisingly powerful voice to an excerpt from Nessun Dorma.

A well-drilled chorus line of lithe boys and Suzie Wong girls strut their way through Paul Robinson’s sassy choreography. And those 3-D effects, for which you must don the ridiculous-looking glasses supplied, are, at first anyway, genuinely jaw-dropping. This is highly polished entertainment as bright as Barrowman’s smile; and it’s sure to give Tardis and Time Lord acolytes of all ages a thrill.

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