Dick Whittington, London Palladium 2017

You lie! She is the First Lady of British Musical Theatre. You besmirch her good name sir. How very dare you. If it wasn't Christmas I'd come there and sing the score of Piaf to you right now.

Go and sit in that corner with the rest of the Christmas cracker jokes.

Yes I saw that article too. Colleen Nolan being the top earner at 200k, Julian was second I think at 192k. Not bad eh!

I was a bit surprised at Coleens as its also a smaller theatre however thinking about it Coleen is probably the bigger name compared to Elaine and Julian as well with more current exposure thanks to loose women

Julian and Elaine are on "more per show" than Coleen but Ms Nolan has certainly got a good deal as it's not such a big venue as others and she isn't a home town star like others.

Looking forward to seeing this on its final weekend of performances. Booked Row W of stalls based on dynamic pricing - how is this view for this production? Will much be cut off by the overhang? I hope Dick doesn't appear too small from my seat

Thinking back to when I saw this.... for me one of the best lines in it was "You don't get that at Hamilton" i don't know why but really made me laugh!

I would expect a wholly new line up next year. With the exception of stars who have a link to the venue (the chaps in Newcastle, Matt Slack in Birmingham, etc), Qdos tend to shuffle people after 2 years, generally speaking.

Qdos do have some well known stars in their ranks, so I'm really intrigued to see what they come up with for next year.

Well of course I LOVED this show.

Stupendous production values and so funny. I barely stopped laughing. Yes, the plot gets lost especially in the second act and it becomes a variety show but hey, it's Christmas and the season of goodwill.

All the "forgotten" lines, corpsing, and prompts well rehearsed and expertly delivered of course. Although I did feel there were some moments when Julian and Elaine seemed tired (12 show weeks!) and did not seem to know what day it was, but of course quickly recovered the pace being the professionals they are.

The Twelve Days of Christmas routine brought the house down only surpassed by Gary Wilmots Underground Station song which received ( rightly) the biggest applause of the night.

Nigel Havers in a bigger part than last year nearly stole the show and was hugely popular with the audience who all seemed to have been last year and were in on the joke.

Very few kids in the audience - which Julian acknowledged with " I really don't know why they let them in!" although the kids will have enjoyed it!

Elaine Paige was a good sport - the lyric re-writes of her "hits" were excellent and her line something like "I'll have Dick in my clutches" brought the house down! Worth the price of admission alone!

I didn't enjoy it quite as much as last year simply because I felt I had seen it all before - last year... the same formula - and in Paul Zerdins case exactly the same act! I feel they need to ring the changes a bit although given the response of the PACKED theatre - why change a winning formula?

Edited to add that the front of house staff at the Palladium were all superb - efficient and very friendly setting the right atmosphere for the show.

I had a lot of teenagers around me - girls and boys who of course were glued to their phones before curtain up - taking selfies, texting and chatting and I thought I was in for a nightmare of picture taking, checking phones and chatting through the performance, but a credit to the show and the performances once the show started the phones went away and they were completely engaged with the show, roaring with laughter and whooping and applauding. It added to the pleasure of the evening!

Colleen Nolan the highest paid panto star? WTAF?

Yes there is an orchestra pit