Which Pantomimes Are You Seeing This Year?

Michael Harrison has just been talking to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. He's worried that as many as five of the 10 Qdos pantos could be forbidden under the new Tier 3 rules.

Audiences are banned from shouting out or heckling. Only stamping your feet and jumping up and down will be allowed.

I see that Bristol's Tier-3 hit panto is being rescheduled to February and QDOS moved the December run to Woking...

Newcastle Theatre Royal now confirm their Robin Hood will be rescheduled to April 2021. All ticketholders will be automatically refunded - new dates/schedule to be announced Fri 11 December and on sale the following week.

In the late 70s, early 80s Leeds Grand Theatre frequently had pantomimes which played over Christmas/New Year elsewhere , then played Leeds for the February half term holiday .

Saturday is only my 2nd panto since childhood, which was a very long time ago.
Going to The Palladium.
The time before was at The Old Vic with Ian McKellen and the time before that was with Tommy Trinder (ask your grand parents!) when I won a goldfish.
So shows that I don't really like Panto but looking forward to Saturday for a bit of a laugh.

Enjoyed a good long dose of Dick tonight. That's all 2 hours and 40 minutes of it at the National Theatre.

I was somehow taken in through the wrong entrance, which led to my trying to avoid private areas to get to my seat. Very thorough Covid-19 measures, including declarations and scanning in with the app. The pantomime was socially distanced too, with even the pantomime horse appearing in two halves.

A little disappointment before the show, with the director coming on stage to announce the show is closing before it has even opened (but tomorrow's performance is being filmed), plus Leah St Luce would be on for Tom Cat (a shame, as I was looking forward to seeing Cleve September, but Leah was still very good).

This isn't a golden pantomime by any means. A very modern take, grating at times and light on laughs, but with things how they are, I was determined to enjoy it. Second half, where they just throw the plot away, is more fun than the first half. It is generally suitable for children, although there were very few in, but there are a lot of political jokes and understandably lots at the expense of the main character's name. The best laugh of the night came from a great one-liner relating to Rishi Sunak and eating out.

The small cast give it their all within the limited budget they obviously have had to work within. There are dances for the audience to learn (shouting and cheering isn't encouraged for obvious reasons). Lots of versions of modern pop songs, some of which I vaguely recognised. And even some gunge (beware if you're in the front row as two people in front of me got lightly splashed).

A free programme as well, which is always a bonus, plus it doubles up as a sign to hold up in place of booing or cheering.

Quite a lot of empty seats (other than the socially distanced ones) which surprised me a little. So you may well be able to get a seat tomorrow if you want one. But otherwise the £20 I paid seemed about right. Will be interesting to see if the dirtier jokes make it into the streamed version.

I was lucky enough to see Sleeping Beauty at The Mayflower, Southampton this afternoon. A really well managed entry to the theatre with a cast list available in lieu of a full programme and lots of clocked off seats.

I think it worked really well as a one act show. I’m more used to Palladium pantos recently so it was unusual for me to have to follow a plot! The cast were all great and worked hard. The show’s final number was Finding Pantoland which a week earlier had made me emotional when sung by Beverley Knight at the Palladium. Here all the singing members of the cast joined in making it even more powerful I think.

After the news of new tiers came in yesterday, while I wasn’t directly affected, I decided to head to Winchester for Four Dames in Search of a Panto. This was a different show to usual and I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was great fun and a very hard working cast of 4. A bit of a mix of the history of panto and mimi panto and an amazing 12 days of Christmas and song sheet with no audience singing! Great safe setup with every other row removed in the stalls so amazing legroom too!!

As I mentioned I was one of the lucky ones to see the palladium panto. Tier 2 rules meant I lost my booking for 19/12 but was able to buy a ticket for 13/12. I think someone must have been looking down on me to align the stars! No pretence of plot this year but a very emotional show.

I was hoping to end panto season with Dick Whittington at the national but that is looking shakier and shakier.

Thank you to all the actors, musicians and front & back of house staff that make it all happen.

The Mayflower panto has been cancelled after its first weekend. Tragic for all involved and I know a decision they wouldn’t have taken lightly.

The Marlowe in Canterbury has put up a free stream of this year's panto. Ben Roddy is in fine form, but it is extremely odd seeing genuinely good jokes delivered to complete silence. He really tries and I'm glad they put it up, but the performers have to work so much harder without that audience energy and noise.

Big news in the panto world, Qdos, the biggest producer of pantomimes, has been sold to Crossroads live:

www.thestage.co.uk/news/exclusive-qdos-pantomimes-sold-to-global-production-company-crossroads-live