THIS community show is traditionally the first pantomime of the season in York, but it is a pantomime undergoing changes too.

Moving with the times does not go as far as the principal boy being played by an actual boy, as has become the norm in so many commercial pantomimes now, but the forty thieves appeared to have made off with unusual booty.

An entire band has gone missing, replaced by backing tracks and a musical director, Thomas Marlow, with his head poking out of a hole in the stage, from where he keeps time for the singers, plays piano in the sing-song and acts as judge and jury in deciding which side has sung the loudest.

It cannot have been an easy decision to make, so here are the pros and cons. On the positive side, the bigger stage allows more room for the ensemble's dancing to Ami Carter and Claire Horsley's bright choreography and brings the cast closer to the audience, while the cost savings in musicians' fees means more money can be ploughed back into theatre activities.

On the downside, the loss of musicians is always regrettable and the live interplay between performers and band is one of pantomime's strongest ingredients. Backing tracks are inflexible too, and consequently, the rhythm is more difficult to maintain because there is no chance to adapt. Truth be told, your reviewer would prefer a band to return for Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs next year, but if the constraints of finance prevent that, then so be it.

What is undeniable is the fantastic energy levels that writer/director Howard Ella extracts from his cast, led by Graham Smith's rough and ready dame, Molly Baba. He never lets up beneath his vivid green wig, working the crowd, cajoling them, even hectoring them, improvising, ad-libbing, keeping both cast and audience on their toes.

He has a change of lead ally in tow, a lanky fella called Ella, Finn Ella to be precise. Finn is not new to the Players' pantomime but he has stepped into the buffoon's role with aplomb at only 17. Leon Thompson is a hard act to follow – there is no better daft lad on the North Yorkshire amateur circuit – but Finn is a gawky joy, wide eyed, wide mouthed, wide armed and quick to spot the moments for double-act banter with Smith. Comedy is hard work for all but a few; Finn, however, is born for it.

Another Ella, not Cinder-ella, but Daisy Ella plays the title role in the classic principal boy mode, with a hint of the tomboy too, opposite Katie Sutton's well-sung Princess Pashmina, and experience abounds around them in the shape of co-writer and baddie Andy Welch's grand Arte Farte, Marie-Louise Surgenor's Princess Thoth and Martyn and Jeanette Hunter's Sultan and Sultana.

Chad Hammerton's Hakim, six thieves and dancing teams all contribute to a most raucous, wild Rowntree pantomime with plenty of topical York gags for good measure. The show will go on in 2015, but will a band return? Wait and see.

Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves, Rowntree Players, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday. Box office: 07927 026071 or at rowntreeplayers.co.uk