Its that time of year again, OH YES IT IS! Pocket Size Theatre's 2022 Pantomime Preview

This year the Pantomime headlines will be grabbed by the two star-led, high-production value shows in London at the London Palladium and the Duke of York but there are plenty of other very good shows all-round the United Kingdom offering a very good Christmas family trip to the theatre. The Pantomime website ITS BEHIND YOU DOT COM - The Magic of Pantomime diary lists around 250 professional pantomimes around the country this year, so there is certain to be a show near you. The Charity UK Pantomime Association seeks to celebrate the very best of Pantomime with its Awards and past winners are one guide to which shows to book for.

The London Palladium makes a welcome return to proper storytelling pantomime this year after two variety-style productions with Jack and The Beanstalk and we can expect some stage magic for the climactic end of Act 1 climbing the beanstalk scene. However, it is the addition of Alexandra Burke (2021 Best Mythical Being Pantomime award winner) and Dawn French (2019 Best Villain Nominee ) that really catches the eye. They join the familiar line up including Julian Clary (Best Principal boy 2017 winner) so expect some outrageous adult double entendre, Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers. These spectaculars have won, Best Special Effects 2017 & 2018, Best Musical achievement & Best staging 2017, Best leading man, Villain, Script, and Best Pantomime in 2018 and Best Ensemble & Best Costumes in 2020.

REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast at the London Palladium

The musical that started Disney’s screen to stage path, Beauty and the Beast returns to the West End after touring the UK in a new production at London’s famous Palladium. This 1991 animated classic is a staple for any Disney fan and is a perfect film for a stage adaptation, the West End hasn’t seen this show since 1999 so its return is very much welcome! 

In this new production, directed and choreographed by Matt West, the Disney magic fails to translate onto the stage. That classic spectacle we expect from a huge Disney production is still there but lacks drama and power, for example, the wolf chase scenes are done with projections and whilst the design and illusions are impressive they feel empty and too reliant on the projected images to do the work. The same goes for the big group numbers, whilst ‘Gaston’ was absolutely brilliant, the big show-stopper ‘Be Our Guest’ fails to really give us the punch we want. The cast works very hard but the overall design of this number doesn’t enter us into the world of Beauty and the Beast and the everyday objects who breathe life, instead we have people in top hats and tails in a tap number. 

REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast at The Anvil Arts Theatre

The main Pantomime season closes around New Year and as Producers breathed a sigh of relief that the Westminster Government did not close them down as the Scottish and Welsh governments did to their venues, they continue to navigate the dreaded Covid test text each morning to see if they have a full cast. UK Production’s show of Beauty and the Beast suffered the loss of its Beast allowing the understudy to move up from the Ensemble to the Title character. It adds an extra dimension to the performances and a warm appreciation from the audience so pleased that the show they booked is on.

This script by Jon Monie won a best script Pantomime award at Blackpool Grand in 2018 and had an outing at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2019 so the cast knows they are working with a solid base but as always, they have to bring the energy and timing to the stage to bring it to life successfully. Alongside the Understudy stepping in, it is pleasing to report that they rise to the challenge and deliver an upbeat romantic gentle comedy version of the story. The basic tale set in France remains but the Disney characters of Lumiere and Cogsworth are replaced by the comedy partnership of Nick Wilton as Polly La Plonk and Chris Pizzey as her son Louis, the Beast’s servants, to give it a strong pantomime feel. 

REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast at the Hexagon, Reading

Justin Fletcher knows his audience and has written a perfectly pitched version of Beauty and the Beast as a pantomime for this Christmas at the Hexagon in Reading and stars as Billy Pastry with his comedy soul mate Paul Morse who returns as Dame Nanny Pastry for an eighth year. They have a lovely relationship on stage, a well-crafted partnership that delivers all the classic pantomime routines with great skill, timing, and physical reactions. The result is some of the loudest and most consistent audience reactions that you will hear this season.

Their production includes many of the classic routines that are part of Pantomime history such as a delivery to the houses of Mr Who, Mr What and Mr Idon’tknow, the classic baking scene with plenty of slosh, a fresh feeling lip-sync routine, a standard “If I was not upon the stage”, and the usual Ghost bench scene, this time with a wolf. Each is delivered with discipline, care, and good comic timing to maximize the audience reaction. However, it was the return, “by popular demand”, of the Balletic balloon dance by Dame Busty Darcell and Rudolph Nurafen that once again gets the most laughs. The simplicity of the few words spoken in it, the perfection of the ballet steps and the business with the balloons is so clever it stands repeat viewing and is the show highlight. All the routines are carefully integrated so they flow from the narrative development naturally.

REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast at the Poole Lighthouse

The Poole Lighthouse programme very carefully describes the origins of the Beauty and the Beast story as being from 1537 when Petrus was treated as a wild animal and was married to Catherine and suggests that elements of the story are shared with the myth of Cupid and Psyche. It became a published story in 1740 as Beauty and the Beast but is perhaps best known to current generations from the 1991 Disney Film promoted as “a tale as old as time”. 

Chris Jarvis’s script turns an Andrew Pollard version of the story into a pantomime creating French-speaking characters living in Paris who are transported to Poole under the watchful eye of Cupid with the sub-billing “a tale as old as pantomime” and takes the role of Dame Betty BonBon as well as directing the show. It gives the story a fresh, up to date look with a fun feel-good flavour that entertains young and old in the best traditions of Pantomime. They keep the run time tight, ensure the songs flow out of the narrative and litter the script with the usual mix of old and new jokes (not all of which land) and some double entendre. 

COMING HOME: Samantha Bingley, soon to head out on tour with Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Since March 2020 the entertainment industries have been through one of the hardest times we could ever possibly face. From the moment the theatres closed things went from bad to worse with financial help almost nonexistent for most and being told we should retrain in other industries. However, recently it's been a pretty exciting time for theatre! With shows opening up in London and productions starting rehearsals for West End shows and now, excitingly, touring shows! Tomorrow (July 5th 2021) Beauty and the Beast starts rehearsals for its new UK tour. The show finally makes its return back to the stage and is coming to a theatre near you! 

We met Samantha Bingley outside the Dominion Theatre, the original UK home to the show where it opened in 1997 and ran until the end of 1999. Samantha has been cast in the new touring production as the Wardrobe and couldn’t be more excited to hit the road with this show. 

COMING HOME: Aimée Moore, soon to be on the UK Tour of Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Disney has been providing theatre magic to audiences all over the world since bringing their first full scale musical of Beauty and the Beast to the Broadway stage back in 1994, since then we’ve seen stage adaptations of The Lion King, Tarzan, Frozen, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Newsies and so many more on our stages. With their productions of Mary Poppins and The Lion King announced to reopen in London’s West End and with the much-anticipated production of Frozen at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane opening this year, its only natural that Disney adds to this list and brings back the much-loved classic, Beauty and the Beast. 

After a hugely successful run at the Dominion Theatre and a few tours later, we’re finally seeing this beloved story being told again. Aimée Moore will be appearing in the ensemble of the show and also covers the role of Babette. Aimée was last seen in The Wedding Singer at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in early 2020, her other credits also include Rumpleteazer in Cats at Kilworth House, playing the role of Connie and understudying the role of Stephanie in Saturday Night Fever on tour and playing the role of Amber in the UK touring production of Hairspray. She will also be seen in the new musical movie ‘Tomorrow Morning’, starring Samantha Barks, Ramin Karimloo, Fleur East, Omid Djalili, Harriet Thrope and so many more musical stars! The film, which is being directed by Nick Winston, is based on the musical of the same name and started shooting in May, we absolutely cannot wait to catch it when it's released! 

REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast at the Theatre Royal Newcastle

Danny Adams is a Five star Pantomime comic and circus clown and is now well established as the star in the Newcastle Theatre Royal annual Christmas Pantomime having this year reached his fifteenth consecutive production at the venue and is joined as usual by his father Clive Webb (the straight man of the double act) and for the thirteenth year by the Dame, Chris Haywood under the continued direction of the prolific Michael Harrison. The Geordie audience know what to expect and lap up the familiar routines and shout outs but this year they appear to take few risks to the established formula that they know works.

I first saw Danny Adams and his father in the 2004 Pantomime at the Regent Theatre Stoke on Trent and he made a big impression as a natural comic, the archetypal cheeky chappie and silly Billy. He appeared to combine classic circus skills with traditional music hall style delivery and was always centre stage. Fifteen years on the comic skills are well practised and everyone in the cast becomes his stooge or feed as the whole show revolves around him. In some ways this year's title does not lend itself to this approach and too often one finds oneself comparing the rest of the show to Disney's version of the story. There are nods to it in the excellent costumes especially for Dick the candlestick (Steve Arnott) and Tock the clock (Recce Sibbald) as well as in Belle's (Laura Evans) yellow ball gown but the famous music is all missing and the story itself stripped back to become the link between a wide range of set piece routines for Danny Adams as Danny! Indeed his own brother Michael Potts now joins in the family affair as a sort of Ben Warris character, the daft half of a famous musical hall act.