Which Pantomimes Are You Seeing This Year?

Yes, I'm pretty certain they are still the all time leaders or at very least within living memory. When I was chatting to a panto veteran once possibly Keith Simmons or Robin from the Grumbleweeds they said the Patton Brothers had been doing pantos a good 10 years longer than them.

Keith Simmons mentions about doing this 50th panto in a 2019 social media post so at most he'd be up to 53/54 with his current one so still a few years to go.

Its Behind You lists Dawson Chance - the ventriloquist's pantos between 1972-2019 before he retired so he was still a full decade behind the Pattons. 

Unless someone does some pantos as a child/juvenile performer they'd need to do one every year until they were pretty much 80 to get near what the Pattons did.

Yes it will be. Birmingham nearly always gets the Palladium panto the following year. It then goes to Southampton. It only doesnt happen when Birmingham has only recently had the title (e.g. with Dick Whittington so it went to Southampton straight from London instead).

I'm going to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Floral Pavillion New Brighton on Saturday.

I believe this is Sean Jones' 14th year with the same panto-company - Rhyl Pavillion robbed him of 10 years at the same venue after 9 years.

Also starring Joe Sleight - so Mickey and Eddie from Blood Brothers in the same panto.

Then on Sunday it's off to the Theatre Royal St Helens to see Aladdin, which coincidentally has Tim Lucas and Jess Smith from Blood Brothers in, as the Genie and Jasmine.

I find it strange that some theatres already have next year's panto confirmed but not others. I'm not including the Palladium because that's always announced last.

Saw Cinderella at Milton Keynes and Snow White at Wolverhampton last week. Doing my first shift for the Northampton Derngate's Snow White tomorrow. And I don't even like panto 🤣

Saw Beauty and the Beast in Wycombe over the weekend, with Suzanne Shaw, La Voix, Joe McFadden and Verity Thompson. Excellent!

Yes I know!! Mark is excellent and the audience gave it a great response.

Many places announce next year’s panto to the audience after the song sheet before the wedding walk down.

Managed to get to the Lichfield Garrick on Wednesday to see Beauty and the Beast. Main selling point of this visit had been the resident Dame Sam Rabone reunited with comedy sidekick Ben Thornton after about 5 years. They did some hilarious performances in the 2016 until 2018 pantos so seeing them together again was highly anticipated. This is an Evolution production written by Paul Hendy who has a long panto pedigree as a writer and producer so looked a safe bet.

I got a side circle seat in one of their open boxes for £33 with no booking fee for buying in person which I felt was good value. The first part of the panto was a bit slow going until Sam appeared in one of his many spectacular costumes. But the magic seemed to be slightly missing, had I set the bar so high or the first visit to this theatre's panto in 4 years was I expecting too much.

The 7 principals and 6 ensemble were all giving good performances and the full house were certainly enjoying it. Kat Chatterton as Belle had been in last year's show so had a good rapport with Sam and he and Ben got into their stride. The ensemble had nice roles as the servants turned into furniture and danced very well but at the interval it still seemed as if something was missing.

Luckily in the second half - a very funny scene when one male dancer was in a statue body stocking and a fig leaf joke seemed to pick the show up. But it was the two panto staples the haunted forest bench scene and the slapstick spot where it was as if Sam and Ben were truly back to their best. Sam's outfits got more spectacular and his singling out of a man on the front row is the oldest panto trick there is but still worked.

There was no Gaston but a sidekick called Danton who assisted the goodies which seemed a bit strange. Not a comedy character as such but the actor sang well as did Kat as Beauty and Melad Hamidi as the Prince/Beast. Natalie Pilkington from Six was a fun fairy and Sarah Annakin was having a ball as the Enchantress.

This was the cast's third show of the day but the energy level's were still amazing. The first half I rated as a 7/10 but the second half a 9/10 so I'll give it 8/10 overall. Sam is one of the best younger dames in the country and him and Ben are always worth seeing as a panto duo. My expecations were possibly too high but well recommended show especially for real panto fans.

Just home from Jack and the Beanstalk in Oxford at the Playhouse. Really very good. Nice low key, non starry, home written panto!

Saw Salisbury Playhouse's Dick Whittington on Boxing Day. If you want a pantomime that thinks outside the box visually and storywise in the south then the Playhouse has always been a reliable venue

And this year is no different when you're faced with a sunny, tropical set with summer songs playing pre-show. All pre-empting the second act when usually our heroes are stranded on a tropical island. Except here they are now stranded in Miami, America (somehow, having been on a ferry to the Isle of Wight), before realising they are on a Hollywood set. And cue many film and star references, with the "he's behind you routine" done with the ghost of Jaws, or a man in a shark suit.

All very fun. With a running sub-story with Alice Fitzwarren dreaming of being an actress, and Dick encourages her to sign for the Hollywood director. And in the end she's starring in her Hollywood debut and instead of a wedding at the curtain call it's instead her film premiere. Though I felt the show did go on for 5-10 minutes too long.

And I couldn't help noticing a toy train track running along the front of the stage and sure enough they have a toy train (with a noticeable santa figuring on it) run along it during Dick's journey to London. Although they did set up that he was walking to London, playing the 500 miles song, so having him get the train the remainder of the sequence contradictory. But this is panto, so why should I take it seriously when this show is having a ball throwing so much in.

The cast were good though I did feel that not all the jokes didn't land. Either the audience wasn't the most receptive or the cast needs to tighten up on the timings.