WITH the Big Day itself just waiting in the wings, it's time to put on make-up and light the lights as the panto season kicks festively off.

Both Bath and Bristol are staging superb productions this year: the Theatre Royal Bath with Aladdin, the traditional family panto, and the Bristol Hippodrome with Beauty and The Beast, the breathtaking musical based on the classic Disney film.

The Bath Star's Jeremy Smith attended both and came away 30 years younger:

The Theatre Royal Bath's production of Aladdin is a fabulously fun and funny (remember, the two don't always go together) two-and-a-bit-hours of laughter and nonsense that is both topical and reassuringly traditional.

Plenty of gags about EastEnders and other TV favourites as well as old- fashioned one liners that Sid James and Les Dawson would have been proud to deliver.

Chris Harris as the Widow Twanky and Jon Monie as Policeman Pong are worthy of special mention, effortlessly glueing the show's many parts into a wonderfully live, cheery and comforting celebration of all things silly.

While Larry Dann as arch baddie Abanazar, clearly relishes the part.

As for the rest of the cast, the dancers from the Dorothy Coleburn School of Dancing are a natural hit, both with parents and children.

A terrifically enjoyable night out.

Aladdin runs until Sunday, January 20. Bookings (01225) 448844.

If it's out-and-out spectacle you want, together with terrific show-stopping numbers and sets that appear to perform the impossible, then Beauty and The Beast is a must.

Rarely I have seen a show that truly deserves the moniker of 'joyous' but Beauty earns this title many times over. Boasting some truly extraordinary stage designs, a cast of singers and dancers who literally sweat talent, and aw hell, let's say it, the kind of rip-roarin' tunes they just don't write anymore (although clearly they do), this is a once-in-an-every-few-years event that leaves you smiling long after the curtain has dropped.

Based very closely on Disney's animated classic, the scenes between the musical set-pieces are short, funny and at times, genuinely moving. But it's the comedy and sheer bravura of the performances which will help keep the younger members of the audience from asking to go to the toilet for the 17th time.

A genuine Christmas cracker.

Beauty And The Beast runs until March 23. To book tickets, telephone (0870) 607 7500.