Which Pantomimes Are You Seeing This Year?

Peter Pan at Birmingham Rep was excellent, great use of bungee flying hoists - you could see someone clambering up the side of the set to counterweight the various actors when they "flew". Set designer deserves a shoutout too.

Lots of funny local jokes and a clever reworking of the story. Nia Gwynne seemed to be having a ball playing Hook and Mirabelle Gremaud as Tink was hilarious - looking like Columbia in the Rocky Horror Show and sounding like Columbia does when she is sprayed by Frank and goes on that mad rant before the floor show.

I saw him in Panto many years ago, I cannot recall where but he has been regarded as one of the best panto performers for a fair while.

Saw Snow White at Birmingham Hippodrome - Matt Slack totally stole the show as usual. He even took off Lesley Joseph's wig off during the 12 Days of Christmas leaving her in her wig cap.

Goldilocks coming to Birmingham next year with Matt back for 8th year.

I'm generally not a huge fan of panto, so will normally only go to see certain people. Yesterday I went to see Lee from Steps in Jack and the Beanstalk in Chesterfield, and actually really enjoyed it - even the scenes he wasn't in! I normally have a low tolerance for silliness in pantos, but this one was ok, the silly bits weren't too silly and I even quite liked the Simple Simon character.

I think Jack is a good panto for the male leads, getting them more involved than most Princes. The ending with the kids going up on stage is a bit different, as there are two children with their respective parents on the stage too in a kids v adults bit.

As expected there was a Steps medley, and I impressed one of the ensemble dancers by joining in the moves. On my way home I surprised myself with the thought that this is a show I actually wouldn't mind seeing again. As I've got off to a good start with pantos this year, I'm actually now planning to see another a bit nearer to me, hopefully it will also be within my tolerance levels!

Just been to the Lyceum in Crewe to see Cannon and Ball in Peter Pan, and what a show. Nothing is quite as brilliant as seeing performers with over fifty years experience plying their trade onstage, it was hysterical. Constant asides and ad libs, including a particularly persistent kiddy heckler which Bobby dealt with like the pro he is. Also it was refreshing to see a panto that knows when to end. 2hrs 10 in total, perfect length.

Agree and am relieved to see that the Guildford panto this year - which I'm seeing this week as waiting for trains to resume rather than braving rail replacement bus - is exactly that length, though the interval is 20 minutes on top, so 2 h 30 overall.

On the same note, I went to see Nativity The Musical on Saturday evening. I'll draw a veil over the rest of the experience but I was shocked and disappointed to learn that it was due to last so long and the first act certainly outstayed its welcome at 75 minutes. Surprising with so many young people in the audience and many of those attending with long journeys home as it won't be a local venue for most, unlike, perhaps, many regional venues. Besides, it's not just children who need an earlier night than these running times allow!

On the scheduling point for performers, I hope other pantos do as in Guildford and with long-running musicals and have alternates.  Guildford has plenty of double performance days but also had two only with 3 performances and on both those days, alternates were used for the earlier 2.

I hadn't been to a panto in ages, but I did see Cinderfella at The Tron a couple of weeks ago. It was hilarious & totally dotty - lots of contemporary references and commentary and a combination of modern storytelling, a bit of gender-swapping, ace original songs and all-out bonkers-ness by Jonny McKnight.

The small, multi-roling all-women cast were excellent & particular highlights were Jo Freer as Cinderella's side-kick, Muttons the sheep, who also became the Fairy Frogmother, and also Hannah Jarrett-Scott & Daisy Ann Fletcher as the Ugly Stepbrothers, Harry & Larry flexing in impressive (& slightly disturbing) muscle suits.


It was possibly aimed at slightly older children & adults: the secondary school groups in the audience really seemed to enjoy it.

It was a brilliant way to spend the afternoon.

I promised in the Danny La Rue thread to post a link to a recent article in The Yorkshire Post about Qdos' huge warehouses in Scarborough and Beverley. I always keep my word, so here it is.

Qdos article.

Just seen it and agree with pretty much all your sentiments. Although I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how good Marti Pellow was, deliciously evil and he absolutely relished it. Grumbleweeds were the low light, cheap laughs and not a patch on the likes of The Chuckle Brothers or Cannon and Ball. Day was very annoying, like he was on autopilot, and he didn't have the cheeky charm needed for the comic's role. Next years is Cinderella with Revel Horwood and Debbie McGee, won't be visiting The Mayflower next year, I've vowed not to see any Cinderellas if I can avoid it.

Since I was last on here a fortnight ago, I've seen another three pantos.

Our local panto at our very small Georgian theatre is Aladdin, and our Genie is Freddie Mercury. That's the only reason I went, and it's fantastic, so much so I made a return visit today, and I'm not a panto fan. There are lots of Queen references in the dialogue, and variations on Queen songs, including the audience joining in with "We will, make your, wishes come true". There's also a cameo by Cannon and Ball (pre-recorded).

Jack and the Beanstalk at Whitely Bay was good, Ashely and her dog Sully (previously Pudsey from their BGT days) were very good in it, I think all panto fairies should be assisted by a dancing dog!

Yesterday I went to Beauty and the Beast in Newcastle. Oh dear, I think my low tolerance for panto had run out by this point. It was basically the Danny and Clive show and was much too silly for my liking. It was a nice change from the more frequently shown pantos and the scenes with Beauty and the Beast in them were good, so if there had been more of them, and less of the messing around being stupid without adding anything to the story bits, I would have enjoyed it more. I understand these are a key part to panto, but other shows have got the balance right much better. Next year we have Humpty Dumpty, which just sounds like an excuse to throw eggs around for two hours, so I might give that a miss.

So, my first pantomime ever was the glorious Red Riding Hood - The Rock ’n Roll Panto at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall. Oh man. It was so much fun! Why is this a purely British thing? It should be a thing everywhere! The story was nuts and not that important (although it did make sense). The jokes and innuendos were superfun; I joined in whole-heartedly in all the crazy screaming. The dame was glorious and a minor character called Bodgit also deserves a shoutout. When he was playing a hare with scissors (to demonstrate a haircut; you had to be there) he didn’t have any lines, so of course the dame made fun of him. Their exchange concluded with the following:

Dame: “Three years of drama school. Was it worth it?”
*shaking his head in regret while desperately suppressing laughter to show that he is a professional after all*

The parts where the cast cracked up because of the weird antics of the dame were definite highlights.

The lady next to me was filming parts of the show (tut tut, but I didn’t say anything, because you know: why make a fuss?). But she apologised to me for filming and using her phone when we were in the queue for the toilets. Turns out she was the mother of the bad guy (the wolf) and wanted to film his parts of the show so that she could make fun of him later at home. She also mentioned that although it all looked very glamorous on stage, she is more used to him in his pyjamas and still does his laundry for him (because that is what moms are for). She was also very enthusiastic in joining in with all the interactive bits and I definitely took some of my screaming cues from her. Lovely conversation; lovely titbit of info. Also: lovely people allround here in Yorkshire. After 4.5 years of grim Swiss people, I really don’t know how to handle this

Then in other news, my mom, who I was with, made a bit of a stir during the interval. She used the disabled toilets (because there were only 3 toilets available in total and the queue was growing and growing) and in doing that I lost sight of her for one precious moment, since I was using another cubicle. Well. I am sitting there and hey, an alarm starts blaring. First, I think nothing of it, but then I hear a kerfuffle outside with people raising their voices etc. What had happened? Well, my mom is older (as most moms are) and she saw a chord hanging down from the toilet. In the old days, that’s how you flushed a toilet. Not anymore. Now they are just present in the disabled toilets as alarm chords. So she pulled the chord, thinking she’d flush the toilet and so set off the alarm. Much broken English explanations and apologies from my mom, much embarrassment from me.

Let’s just conclude it was an eventful afternoon: a great start to the new theatre year!

5/5 stars

Just made my now annual trip to York and despite no Berwick (onstage at least) it was the most I've laughed at a panto, and possibly in a theatre in general, for a long time. There is such a magical chemistry between the cast and nobody, but nobody can beat David Leanord for comic villainary, his facial expressions alone are enough to bring the house down. Suzy Cooper though was the standout for me, going for the slapstick with aplomb and exuding an infections high energy throughout. I overheard some staff member saying there could be a cast shake up next year. Well I reckon there will be riots on the streets of York if there is!