Pocket Picks: Our top Pantomimes of 2021!

Pantomime is one of the greatest British festive traditions, bringing so many people to theatres; some for the first time and some as a yearly tradition. We look back at some of the pantomimes we've reviewed here at Pocket so far this year and pick out some of the highlights! But even though we're choosing our favourites, we must send our admiration to all those involved in theatre across the UK, whether in a panto or anything else. With closures happening all over due to the pandemic yet again, it has reminded us how privileged we are to get to experience the joy that is live theatre. So keep supporting your local venues, and go see a panto!

Sleeping Beauty at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley ★★★★★

"...this year we’ve got a couple of proper names in the always good value, Bonnie Langford and Lee Mead. Along with Myra Dubois as the wicked fairy, Lloyd Hollett as Muddles, the Court Jester, Claudillea Holloway as the princess and Joelle Moses as the Queen, this combination proves to be the best overall cast I can recall." 

Sleeping Beauty at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley is running until the 2nd January 2022. Click here to book tickets. 

Click here to read the full review

REVIEW: Aladdin at the Manchester Opera House

The production at Manchester Opera House of Aladdin shows what can be achieved if you have a strongly committed cast giving it their all to deliver a perfect Christmas Entertainment as they take a standard Alan McHugh script and inject it with passion, comedy, and energy. It must be tempting for the cast to think they need to pace themselves over fifty shows, but the audience needs to believe that in this show the cast are throwing everything at it and are loving the result. This cast led by Alexandra Burke, who is becoming an accomplished musical theatre performer and the irrepressible cheeky chappie, Ben Nickless, with fab-u-Lous support from Ceri Dupree and a powerful controlled performance by John McLarnon as Abanazar gave that impression on a Monday night that they were having as much fun on stage as we were having watching them. It was a practically perfect execution of pantomime.

Ben Nickless packs a great deal of comedy routines into the two-hour 10-minute running time including interval but there is still plenty of time for the others to shine. His impressions are good (Alan Carr, John Bishop, Michael McIntyre, Keith Lemon, Harry Redknapp, and The Simpsons), his political digs are witty rather than bitter, his covid gags seem appropriate and his reactions and engagement with the cast and audience is superb throughout. It is a hilarious gag when he explains he learned to be a Ventriloquist during lockdown, but the dummy requires him to wear a mask as he is within two metres. He also breathes fresh life into the Producer’s Crossroads standard routines of the trunk of truth, one shirt short tongue twister, and if I was not upon the stage working well with the other cast members. His execution of the DVD titles story with Dupree is fun and silly and his dance-off with Burke is wonderful showing they can both move well and have funny bones.

The Past, Present & Future of Pantomime

Pantomime is often a child's first experience of live theatre and therefore it plays a critical role in establishing a young person’s love of live entertainment. It is also a unique shared experience as the whole family go together and the genre is built on audience interactions and traditional calls and shout outs. Sadly, this year there will not be the usual hundreds of venues staging a pantomime, and thousands of actors and technical staff will be unemployed. Only a few have survived the Pandemic and even then, in an abbreviated form, led by Qdos with Lottery funded shows in large venues to ensure they are Covid safe.

Qdos has established itself as the leading Pantomime production company usually has 35 productions each year including the two leading venues of the London Palladium and Birmingham Hippodrome but there are many other companies who usually produce multiple productions (UK productions, Imagine, PHA, Jordan and Evolution) and lots of “in house” productions. All of them are built on the same traditional elements that have made the genre so established over the last two hundred years.