REVIEW: Mother Goose at the Duke of York's Theatre

This was my twenty-second pantomime of the 2022/23 season and you hope through the marathon set of visits to save the best to last. After six Jack and the Beanstalks, six Cinderellas, three Aladdins, two Goldilocks and three bears, a beauty and the beast, a sleeping beauty, and a Snow White, the second Mother Goose proved to be just that. What’s more, there are still ten venues to catch it again at until 16th April – so book now to see a real treat. 

Jonathan Harvey’s brilliant script does everything you want for a Pantomime, it makes sense of the Mother Goose Story, builds cleverly on the talents of the cast, and integrates the traditional Panto business into the tale so it makes a coherent whole. John Bishop tells the audience in his ten-minute warm-up before the curtain rises to forget what it's like outside and immerse themselves in the Panto experience and the whole cast works wonderfully together to make sure that happens.

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the London Palladium

The London Palladium has been the undisputed home of quality variety for many decades and since 2016 has been the home of the biggest pantomime, not only in London but in England with more stars, bigger ensembles, grander sets, and special effects and has built an adoring fan base who know what to expect from Julian Clary and his returning band of co-stars. They know what works and sells the tickets even at the huge prices of £160 for the best stall seat. The confidence the team now have in the formula enabled them to take the bold decision to remove around forty of the premium stalls seats to accommodate the base of the beanstalk that grows up into the auditorium roof to end Act 1, enough lost Gross Box Office to fund most other regional pantomimes! It makes for an impressive if rather telegraphed Act 1 finale but does not reach the stunning spectacle of the upside-down motorbike or double-decker bus flying over the audience in other shows.

The production honours the traditions of Music Hall variety and Musical Theatre concerts that have graced the stage before and as Clary gleefully acknowledges the plot rarely gets in the way of the next turn. Each star is given their moment to deliver their turn alone or in partnership with a CoStar and many of the best-loved routines are included from previous shows and especially from Matt Slack’s Birmingham Hippodrome productions and other Crossroads shows of the last few years. The lip sync routine, the trunk of truth, the tongue twister, If I were not upon the stage, the dance-off, “Who’s at first base”, and even young Nicholas in the songsheet all get included and are well executed but crisper fresher versions have been done in prior years. 

REVIEW: Aladdin at the Theatre Royal Bath

Aladdin is one of the best Pantomime titles, it's full of great opportunities for magical and comical business such as the Laundry scene, the attempts of The Emperor to stop his daughter being seen by Aladdin, the meeting of Widow Twankey and her long-lost brother-in-law Abanazar, the cave transformation and genie’s appearance, the magic carpet ride and of course Abanazar’ s final defeat. It has however become caught up in the debate about inclusivity and diversity in casting as it is based in China and because some past productions have included some racial stereotypes. The UK Production’s latest version with a script by Jon Monie which played at the Theatre Royal Bath until 8th January does its best to steer through this minefield with a diverse cast and set in Humdrum Heights while sticking with the traditional storyline and names. 

Tom Lister as Abanazar drives the show with a delightfully strong energetic performance, revelling in his evil persona and the audience’s reaction to him and geeing them up to react more. He interacted brilliantly with the stage right box having caught a young audience member out once and played on it beautifully thereafter. Indeed, his sortie into the audience armed with a water pistol was so distracting that the audience completely ignored the song being sung on stage! The character takes charge right from the start with a very good prologue setting out the story in a three-way rhyming couplet opening with the spirit of the ring (Amy Perry) and the Genie (Maddison Tyson) and then a well-judged comical romantic first meeting with Widow Twankey (Nick Wilton) in “You are the one that I want”.

REVIEW: Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

When you produce a show built around star names and their past performances to attract the crowd, you are left with some difficulty when that star is indisposed and can’t appear leaving a gaping void that is hard for even the best understudy to fill. So, when the Count Ramsey of Erinsborough walked on stage in the opening scene to speak his opening lines in an Australian accent there was a gasp of disappointment as 2000 people immediately realised that Jason Donovan had succumbed to the cold, he had highlighted on a recent TV interview. James-Lee Harris filled those shows well but without Donavan’s stage presence and interaction with the rest of the cast it did feel a bit flat. To make matters worse this title is short on story, as the Dame remarked when another bit of pantomime business was over, “get back to the plot, thin as it is”. 

So, it is left to Richard Cadell to entertain the audience in his own variety show dressed as Joey the clown. He is a curious mixture of “handler” of the glove puppets Sooty, Sweep and Soo, Magician and illusionist with his assistant Sarah Jane Lowe and old-fashioned comedy stooge. His Trunk of truth and Chapel Bell's routines that focus attention on his private parts would have embarrassed Soo if she had appeared. His routines with Sooty and Sweep (who of course don’t speak) are a little lost on the enormous Mayflower stage but at least the good old water pistols were used to comic effect by Sweep as he cried all over the front rows! He interacted well with the audience and the Dame, Adam Strong, in the chat-up routine but was at his best with two young children in the songsheet treading brilliantly the balance between getting laughs and upsetting the young kids. When he asked the young boy the easy question “What do you find in a CHEESE sandwich” and the lad replied “Pickle” it deservedly got the biggest laugh of the night.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Lighthouse, Poole

By the time you read this review, this year’s production of Cinderella at the Lighthouse Theatre in Poole will have almost finished its run but read on because the same team will be back next year with a production of Aladdin which is a title with more magical business and narrative than most other titles and is sure to be a good show. What does it take to be a great pantomime and why is the Poole team so effective? 

Firstly, it needs a writer and director who understands both his audience and the genre and brings a wealth of experience in appearing and producing shows. In Chris Jarvis who is in his fourth pantomime at the venue and who has almost thirty on Children's TV, the venue is lucky to have such experience at the heart of the production. The essential story beats must be part of the show, in the case of Cinderella (played by Charlotte Wood) when she first meets the Prince (played by Tyger Drew-Honey) in the woods, the invitation tearing scene with the Ugly sisters, Buttons trying to cheer her up with a nine-carrot necklace, the clock striking midnight and the slipper trying on scene. At Poole, all were present and delivered with charm in keeping with the traditions of the show. 

REVIEW: Snow White at The Old Savoy

The Old Savoy is a delightful Art Deco venue independently owned and deserves the support of its local community in Northampton. For this year’s Pantomime that support is secured by the inclusion of four teams of Junior Ensemble who must surely bring in huge friends and family audiences to see them. What is more is that this Junior Ensemble made the visit worthwhile as they are wonderful throughout. The four teams consist of seven dancers, six gymnasts and seven as the non-discriminatory modern interpretation of Disney’s Seven Dwarfs. Indeed, although they do project an image of Snow White from that cartoon over the proscenium at the start, this version could not be further from that famous film in its style.

The Super Seven are Diddy, Sussy, Sassy, Freaky, Windy, Wokey and the Guvnor but it is Wokey that keeps popping up to keep the show modern and on track. Her clever and very clearly enunciated interruptions seem to both highlight current politically correct statements while at the same time gently poking fun at them, keeping both sides of the debate satisfied! She explains that they “don’t believe that people should be given labels or named after physical attributes”, although Windy regularly reminds us of why she is so named. She says their names are “only acceptable because we say so”. When the Prince finally arrives to awaken the sleeping Snow White Wokey steps forward to stop him giving her a “non-consensual kiss” but then follows up when she is awake with a “fill your boots son”. 

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Anvil Arts, Basingstoke

There is one title that says Christmas Pantomime and that is of course Cinderella. While some producers are tempted to update the story, resetting it in new locations, Jon Monie’s script that played the Theatre Royal Bath last year tells the story in the traditional way with new stepsisters arriving at Hard Up Hall, Buttons in love with Cinders, a chance meeting with the Prince during a fox hunt and then the dramatic ticket tearing scene to stop her going to the Ball. All the key story beats are there and with an experienced cast, the result is a good retelling of the classic story at The Anvil in Basingstoke.

The Fairy Godmother is played by the lovely Debbie McGee, and she easily engages the audience with her delightfully delivered rhyming couplets with a broad smile and a sparkle in her eyes. She even goes back to her ballet and dance roots for a lively dance routine in Act2 in sharp contrast with the little old lady who Cinderella meets in the woods in Act 1! She had a natural charm and infectious giggle which anyone would want from a Fairy Godmother.

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hexagon, Reading

There is no substitute in Pantomime for a great script and a cast who work as an Ensemble to deliver a good show. Reading Hexagon is lucky to have Justin Fletcher and Paul Morse in their ninth season together with Ryan Alexander Full and Rachel Delooze returning for a second successive year at the venue. Following their success together in Beauty and the Beast last year Justin Fletcher again writes the script for the show and together with director Steve Boden, cleverly refreshes many of the traditional pantomime business to create a practically perfect pantomime for the young Berkshire audiences. The result is a show with a well-judged two-hour running time that engages the audience and keeps the young children from babes in arms upwards entertained throughout that time, demonstrating that Fletcher knows how to connect with his young audiences.

Justin Fletcher as Gil, the brother of Jack, has a commanding effortless stage presence and after an amusing entrance in a Dodgem car (for no obvious reason except he had one in stock) as usual reminds his fans of his alter egos from TV and touring shows and then settles into his routines. Most are delivered with his “partner in crime” the brilliant Paul Morse as Dame Trot (this year) who has an equally strong stage presence with a booming voice, fluttering eyelids and a knowing cheeky grin. They give us a slosh scene routine with plenty of thick gooey white slosh and a magnificent large syringe (a demonstration of the art that many other performers should watch), a refreshed tongue twister “Susie sits in a shoeshine shop” about sold-out sausages (showing the slightest updates give a routine a freshness), the “Chapel Bells” routine (with a twist in the end), a perfectly executed milking scene (with an amusing stage hand gag) and a traditional ghost bench scene with creepy crawlies. Each slightly tweaked the tradition satisfying both first-time audience members and regulars equally. It is shame they did not tweak the “12 days of Christmas” and “a bra that was made to hold three” routine which still works but needs a refresh relevant to the pantomime title. They even cleverly referenced the success of their wonderful “Balloon Ballet” in the last two years which had the audience begging for a reprise to be met with their refusal to good comic effect. It is wonderful to see these two masters of the comic pantomime business delivering these routines.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Wycombe Swan Theatre

It is always exciting and interesting to see a well-known celebrity make their Pantomime debut and each season new familiar faces are attracted to the stage. I doubt if there has ever been a better celebrity debut than Vernon Kay at the Wycombe Swan as Dandini in Cinderella. Despite the fact that this is sometimes a supporting role he dominates the stage with a bubbly and happy personality and natural charm, he has the audience eating out of his hand from his first appearance. He shows an understanding of the pantomime genre and the nature of live theatre and engages the audience with his asides, looks and smiles. When it comes to introducing the Principal Boy, Prince Charming, he asks a young boy from the audience to come on the stage and do it for him and handles the moment delightfully. Why Cinderella does not fall for him instead of the Prince is a mystery until you remember that they are most of the time following Will Brenton’s excellent script. 

Of course, it takes a lot more than a star name to make a good show and this production has it all from the moment you enter the auditorium, you are transported to a magical world by the amazing digital set with banks of video screens framed by twisted tower portals. The digital scenery, which I had seen before at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, looked even better in the more intimate traditional theatre of the Swan. The technology meant we could see moving rivers, turning windmills, and burning fires with heart and butterfly motifs to add to the script. The transformation scene takes on a new dimension when the on-stage carriage takes off and flies into the distance and then returns and converts back into an onstage pumpkin. It's pure Pantomime magic. Of course, there is a risk in the technology and the frequent black screen was a distraction although Kay brilliantly ad-libbed about it, so it became part of the show. The inclusion of the Gino de Campo and Keith Lemon video projections seemed an unnecessary indulgence adding little especially when we have Jon Clegg on stage as Buttons doing his wonderful impressions of which we could have seen more. His opening routine included Kermit, Alan Carr, The Simpsons, Michael McIntyre, Paddy McGuiness and Sarah Millican while the projected images assisted recognition, the impressions and selected voices were so familiar that the material worked very well. He topically added in a reference to the postal strike when a knock at the door went down well and played the “she behind me” gag wonderfully, twice to a great audience reaction.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking

The Fairy Godmother of all pantomimes is back at the New Victoria Theatre Woking for the festive season, and it is a true Christmas treat for the whole family. It's the well-known rags-to-riches, magical pumpkin, glass slipper story set in Woking and full of panto magic.

This cast are just fantastic. Sarah Vaughan plays the title role and brings a graceful beauty to it. Samuel Wilson-Freeman's Prince Charming is suitably dashing and has great fun on stage; his dance break in the Act 2 opener is awesome! The Fairy Godmother, played by Jenny Gayner, ties the story together and brings festive magic. Her aura and sparkle shine through, and her levitating trick had the whole audience guessing.

REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury

There are a lot of lines to learn in Sleeping Beauty – and that’s just for the audience! In addition to those which you have to call out for the entrance of various characters, there’s a whole range of bits of business which are traditional to the Marlowe theatre panto season itself. As they say – it's the law. As a Marlowe novice, there were moments where it felt like you’ve been invited to a friend’s house at Christmas and are suddenly expected to fall in with peculiar family traditions which everyone else finds completely normal.

Fortunately, the cast are warm and welcoming, so you don’t feel like an outsider for long. The production also has a refreshing quality which, as a veteran of many, many pantos, was a delight to discover. The quality in question is the way in which the show works for both adults and children but does so with almost no hint of a double-entendre. Now I’m not averse to these and have enjoyed many of Julian Clary’s innuendo-laced Palladium pantos, but this show is pitched perfectly so you don’t notice how carefully it’s been crafted, meaning such easy laughs are not needed and not missed.

REVIEW: Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Richmond Theatre

Billed as the Greatest Panto on Earth the Richmond theatre pantomime may be overselling itself, but it is certainly a very good-looking show with a strong cast and fast-paced comedy and variety acts, but is it a pantomime at all? Of course, it has the love story of the principal boy and principal girl, it has a larger-than-life Dame and a nasty villain who we love to boo and plenty of traditional pantomime business. In fact, it has a long history as a pantomime starting in 1853 at the Haymarket in London and the 1939 Oldham Coliseum production featured travelling showmen and acrobats which finally became the two rival circuses in the 1980s. Of course, the live bears of the 1950s are long gone, and this Richmond production is based on The Palladium spectacle of 2019, and it sits very well on the beautiful Richmond stage. 

There may not be the space on the stage for the bigger stunts of the Palladium, but the show is well cast with plenty to catch the eye of both younger and older audience members. The animals are borrowed costumes from the Palladium with a giant Gorilla, dancing zebras, a pirouetting hippopotamus, giraffes, lions, a kangaroo, and an elephant reminding us of those days when circuses were full of animals in the last century. The variety acts are first class with an excellent juggler Gordon Marquez with a slick 3 and 5 clubs, balls and hats juggling act presented in a spectacular light show and Phil Hitchcock as Mysterioso, a wonderful sleight of hand magician with a lovely twist to the doves in a cage trick. Then Matt Baker, as Joey the clown, reminds us of his gymnastic background with unicycle, juggling and walking the tightrope to close Act 1. Indeed, he throws himself into every bit of business with great gusto and relish and creates a delightfully likeable character.

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the South Hill Park Arts Centre

Pantomime may be a wonderful Christmas entertainment for the family but at its heart is the storytelling that draws the audience in and makes them care about the characters, laugh at the silliness and will them to succeed in their goals. For that to work, the creative team need a great script to create a world in which the story can be told. The Wilde Theatre in South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell is very fortunate to have such a fabulous team. Joyce Branagh’s script, her fourth for the venue is superb, recasting Jack as a girl out to save the town of Windy Bottom from the fearful Giant and his dastardly Victorian henchman who, it is revealed, is a Wizard of Oz-style master of the Giant. She adds references to solar energy and recycling to give it a strong modern message and adds a fresh twist on why Fleshcreep is so evil which gives the story a satisfying resolution. Victoria Spearing set design once again is imaginative, and spectacular given the staging depth and a gradual reveal as layers are peeled back and we get closer to Fort Fear in the clouds. It has pastel cartoonish colouring that is attractive to look at and practical to use. Together they create a perfect setting for the young energetic cast to impress.

Director Adam Stafford (who has directed there for the last five years) and choreographer Charlotte Steele (last 3 staged pantomimes at the Wilde) use this setting cleverly to freshen up the standard routines of milking the cow, the baking sketch, the drill routine, the ghost bench scene and the 12 days of Christmas. While other directors stick to what they know works, this team look to add a twist and fit it more strongly into the overall storytelling and while it may not all work it is incredibly refreshing to see old routines being lovingly evolved and played with. They add some interesting puppet work with a mini Dame and Billy and a cut-out puppet Giant which enliven the usual business of the story too although sharper lighting is required to hide the black “ninja” outfits that are used to present these puppets. And then they add a curious in-cast joke where a small fluffy yellow duck is passed from cast member to cast member on each entrance for no apparent reason apart, I suspect to amuse themselves and keep fresh the performances.

REVIEW: Mother Goose at the Hackney Empire

The wonderful Hackney Empire has just finished celebrating its 120th year (though it has existed as a TV studio and Bingo hall for some of that time) with Mother Goose, a title first staged at Theatre Royal Drury Lane by the great Dame Dan Leno in May 1902. It stars and is directed by the irreprehensible Clive Rowe returning to the venue for his fifteenth pantomime of the last 23 years of Hackney pantomimes. It’s a magical venue with its impressive gold and red airy auditorium and uninterrupted views of the stage (thanks to Matcham’s cantilevered balconies) and a perfect setting for introducing young local audiences to the joy of live theatre.

As well as free tickets for Housing Association communities, refugees and young carers, the venue has an impressive track record with its Creative Futures programme which celebrates its 20th year of encouraging and developing young people and providing a safe space to explore new opportunities with a reported 20,000 young lives affected over that time. What better way to tempt new young talent to explore live theatre than a traditional Christmas Pantomime.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Salisbury Playhouse

Salisbury Playhouse took a year off in 2021 from Pantomime and therefore Cinderella was their first in the venue for three years. They borrowed the script from the creative team behind last year’s Newbury Corn Exchange Pantomime, Clare Plested, Adam Brown, and Amanda Wilsher with its fresh take on the Ugly Sisters as social media “influencers” Hashtag and Viral and the Prince’s aide renamed Deldini. Curiously and disappointedly, they dropped the character Buttons from the show, a standard of Cinderella for years who usually adds comedy and pathos to the show. This places more weight on the shoulders of the Dame, Uglies, and Deldini with mixed results. For some reason, Deldini, originally written as a Del Boy character with lots of reference to Only Fools and Horses, retains only a few catchphrases like “plonker”, “lovely jubbly” and “cushty” but drops most of the other successful business from last years show including the brilliant bar fall.

Lucy Alston and Fergie Fraser as Hastag and Viral bring a fresh modern infectious energy to the Ugly Sisters full of self-confidence and social media references which will appeal to the younger audiences and their parents frustrated by the kids overuse of mobile technology and social! The comedy is broad and a little one level with the sisters being mirrors of each other in character and dress, but they are engaging and well-delivered characterisations including a good energetic Ball Cabaret routine.

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Corn Exchange Newbury

The creative team behind this year’s Newbury Corn Exchange Pantomime, as they have been for the last four years are Clare Plested, Adam Brown, and Amanda Wilsher (who also directs) and they had a clear concept underpinning this year’s show following last year’s success. The whole show is built around the musical choices of Musical Supervisor Dai Watts and played by the MD Josh Cottell and drummer Alun Watson and the thin plot is used merely to link the individual routines. It makes for a musical celebration and a party atmosphere that is fun and enjoyable but lacks some of the traditional laugh-out-loud moments and spectacle of Pantomime.

It opens very brightly setting the tone for the show with the arrival of Fairy Fabulous (played by William Beckerleg) dressed and impersonating Elvis Presley (definitely one for the older audience members as he includes Elvis’s lyrics throughout) who is then challenged about noise levels and singing in Newburyshire by Fleshcreep (a wonderfully silly and well-defined character by Matthew Cavendish). The Giant does not want any music and sends Fleshcreep down to stop them singing and playing music while the villagers want to burst into song at the slightest provocation. We then meet the chief culprit Jack (Sev Keoshgerian) who delivers two excellent songs from the 1944 musical Oklahoma! which give a bright upbeat start to the show. Despite the best efforts of an energetic young cast, it never quite reaches that level again during the show. Instead, we sit back and enjoy a jukebox show of familiar old hits with adapted lyrics.

REVIEW: Pantoland, the online streamed Pantomime

Peter Duncan, the former Blue Peter presenter and chief scout, and a director and Dame for many stage pantomimes has a great deal of experience in engaging young children and in 2020 his company Jack be nimble produced Jack and the Beanstalk in his garden and surrounding area and followed up in 2021 with Cinderella in multiple locations. They were excellent ways of bringing the Pantomime genre into people’s homes through streaming and entertaining young families in their sitting rooms. This year he has drawn on both the experience of those two films and his years as a Children’s entertainer to create Pantoland featuring chiefly himself as a Dame and written and directed by himself with Director of Photography Luke Roberts and music by Colin Cottle.

The result is a well-shot and edited mash-up of creative ideas and techniques based very loosely on Pantomime characters and business without any coherent thread or narrative running through it. It might have been better as if reading a video book with different chapters telling different short stories, like a modern-day Playschool or watch with mother. Chapter headings would have made good placeholders to stop as without a running narrative it is quite a long hour watch for an adult! It feels like the sort of programme that would sit quite happily on CBeebies or used as an audition tape for any number of Children's programmes!

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Lyric Hammersmith

Every Pantomime reflects its local community and in many, a style emerges which embeds itself in each new production. Berwick Kaler in York, Andy Ford In the Southwest, Kevin Johns in Swansea, Matt Slack in Birmingham and Elaine C Smith in Glasgow each has a distinctive style that is recognisable as “their show” and brings back the audience each year to celebrate Christmas. The Lyric Hammersmith situated in a diverse community in West London has developed its own style over the last thirteen years, setting itself the goal of moving the genre on to reflect the themes and issues it sees as connecting it to its young local community. Its programme for Jack and the Beanstalk proudly highlights the recycling of materials in the show, its casting is diverse and inclusive, and its adaptation sets out to innovate on a traditional Pantomime story.

It's fascinating to experience this approach which begins with the venue; with the traditional Frank Matcham auditorium transplanted into a modern bustling foyer space. We are presented with a colourful stage setting drawn from arcades & video games and a loud band of four (which often overwhelms the vocals) raised up on a platform above the stage in a design by Good Teeth. Rarely does this staging give any sense of location or the magic of pantomime but creates a square box in which the cast tries to tell the story. The Cow is nothing like the charming black and white panto creature of the programme pictures but instead, two people stood upright in a ludicrous gold skin that fails to generate any pathos or love. The Beanstalk, despite a row of audience blinders being flown in, does not grow magical from the small bean but instead is a large structure flown in from above and strong enough to be climbed with visible safety wires. The Giant is not some fearful tall creature stomping around the stage, but a large box borrowed from Minecraft that slides forward. As a result, there is no magic or spectacle.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

Cinderella is a classic children’s pantomime tale that has delighted audiences for decades. It is the epitome of the Pantomime genre with a comic Buttons, an earnest Dandini distributing invitations, the magic of the transformation into a ball gown and Shetland ponies pulling a carriage. You meddle with the stock characterisations as your peril which was obviously the starting point for the writer Leo Butler and Director Eva Sampson at Stratford East as they junked these elements and bodily reset the title in East Egypt. And why not? Well, how does setting it there, thousands of years ago, bring it into the modern day? Like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella playing with the audiences’ expectations is a great risk so you need to be very confident that your adaption will enthral and excite young families and offer the same shared joy as the original.

Their diverse audience certainly seemed to be up for it from the start and although some audience members seemed to be laughing when there was not even an obvious gag, the production swept us along in a brilliantly funny, inventive and wholly satisfying show. It quickly dispensed with prior expectations and showed a real sense of the essence of pantomime and a strong storytelling narrative which supported the heart-felt thoughts of believing in yourself with an underlying pollical message.

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.