Aladdin, Birmingham Royal Ballet, review It may seem perverse scheduling to stage a balletic version of Aladdin a couple of months after Christmas, yet judging from the number of families who attended the show's first matinee it is actually rather sensible. Pace T S Eliot, February is the cruellest month; certainly it does no harm to brighten it up with some extravagant exoticism. And Aladdin has a responsibility to please. In a move of considerable significance, it has been funded entirely by private enterprise and by philanthropic support from Birmingham Royal Ballet's audience: a remarkable testament to the affection in which this company is held. Undoubtedly the work is a delightful family show, and an ideal first outing to the ballet. A full-blown piece of three-act splendour, originally choreographed by BRB director David Bintley in Japan in 2008, it looks absolutely astonishing; in fact its real star is set designer Dick Bird, who creates scene after scene of retina-ravishing beauty. Aladdin (charmingly ebullient Joseph Cayley) first appears in a street market place, conjured with a dusty backdrop of hanging carpets in rust, magenta and peacock-blue. He is thrown into a cave to find the magical lamp, and finds himself at the bottom of a vast, bony staircase like the ribcage of a giant mastodon. Later he invades the Sultan's palace in search of the beautiful Princess Badr al-Budur (sweetly danced by Elisha Willis), whom he discovers wrapped in a towel in a steamy, gorgeously seductive oriental bath-house. So the look of the thing is sublime (thanks also to Sue Blane's costume design) and Carl Davis's supple, fluid score resonates with Eastern influence. The problem, in strict ballet terms, is that the story does not quite lend itself to the kind of choreography at which David Bintley excels. Although a fine creator of abstract work, his great gift is for rendering character (as in Hobson's Choice and Far From the Madding Crowd); he has described Aladdin as â possibly the least â deep" ballet I've ever made" and, highly accomplished though it is, it does not really play to Bintley's strengths. The finest moment comes in Act I, when the jewels that Aladdin discovers in the cave are embodied in a series of sharp, neat dances reminiscent of Petipa. As the Rubies, Ambra Vallo and Tyrone Singleton shine just as priceless gems should. Meanwhile Marion Tait, assistant director at BRB, gives a masterclass in stagecraft as Aladdin's mother. Until 23rd February, then touring.Tickets: 0844 338 5000,www.brb.org.uk