Dick Whittington, London Palladium 2017

Cast seem good! Is there more names this year competed to last? What about Alice? Wonder if she'll be a MT star

I'd have thought this was a good move for him. Having his name amongst a list of established "stars" like that. Who is in this will receive more public attention that who is in an average musical, and more people will hear his name.

Oh, I agree. Last years panto was 3 hours - and this years will be the same - far too long!

A perfectly fine move for Charlie after Sixpence. Title role at the Palladium with some celebs. Not sure what it would do for him career wise; I didn't see last year's Cinderella, but I've seen my fair share of Panto, and the title role never has any fun. Much like Natasha Barnes' Cinderella, as I'm lead to believe, Charlie will be the 'straight man' to everyone else's joker, dame, villain etc, he'll possibly sing and dance a bit, not much unlike what he's doing now but probably with a bit less dialogue (should note that I still haven't seen Sixpence yet, either), whilst everyone else around him will out-shine him completely and he'll get metaphorically pushed to the back. He's good, but it will take a lot to match the stage skills of some of the old pro's without getting swamped by them. Still, there are worse ways to spend 5 weeks at Christmas!

It's what happens after the panto career wise. Natasha Barnes is reprising her role in Funny Girl on tour - what will happen to her career after that? The same thing with Charlie - what will happen in 2018? Parts like Kipps in HAS don't come around that often. Is it going to tour? Will he tour with it?

Re pay packet: possibly - though they might have to subsidise his pay against the raft of bigger 'stars' performing alongside him!

But it's an interesting one with Charlie. He's obviously perfect for the role of Arthur Kipps (again, haven't seen it but that's the general consensus), but it is quite a unique type of role and with the perfectly fine singing voice he displays on the cast recording and his great dance skills (but not head and shoulders above others I've seen in musical theatre, based purely on TV appearances), the question does remain, what could he actually do after Sixpence?

But that's not to say he's limited. I saw Natasha Barnes when she started out, untrained, in Spring Awakening, and now she's Fanny Brice. So that's versatility. But I just feel that Charlie is a little bit *more* limited in terms of leading roles, and to come out and make the splash he has done this early in his career, there are so many things that people would see as a 'step back' post-Sixpence, but I just find it quite hard to place him in other leading roles, whereas he would obviously be your perfect ensemble member. Excited to see his career develop whatever happens!

Or Elder Price in Book of Mormon. Although, that would mean a stop to the American imports.

Can't believe Charlie never mentioned it when we were talking last week after Half a Sixpence. There was me thinking we were BFFs!!!

I can't help but think the average panto-goer is going to say, "who?" on the news of Charlie Stemp. I was anticipating a really big name that most people would have known. In fact, his is the least well known of all the cast, yet he has the titular role. I'm sure thousands of tickets have been sold in advance, before there was any news, then more when Julian Clary, Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers (last year's residents) were cast, so I guess this announcement won't make much difference in the great scheme of things.

I could see Charlie as Bill in Me & My Girl. It's just about the right shows coming along at the right time - he could be the next generations Michael Ball. The issue is really creating new roles in new shows - as Michael Ball had the opportunity to do with Les Mis. Aspects of Love, Passion and Hairspray.

I wasn't comparing talent. Really only Elaine Paige and Michael Ball have broken through as stars from musical theatre. I was thinking that Charlie and Natasha Barnes may break through in a similar way and be well known from theatre rather than from TV reality shows. No-one seems to become household names now from the theatre.

Emma Williams to play Alice