THE PANTOMIME AWARDS 2025 nominees announced
The 2025 UK Pantomime Association Awards nominations have been announced today, celebrating the very best of the 2024/25 UK productions.
It is the 7th year of Pantomime Awards; the 4th organised by the Pantomime Association, which has been established firmly in the calendar with producers and venues as a wonderful evening in which the genre industry come together to share in each other successes and enjoy each other tales. This support is reflected in the new headline sponsors of Trafalgar Entertainment and ATG Entertainment, two of the largest venue operators in the UK but the independent judging process, which evaluates nearly 500 shows from over 200 venues by a team of 52 judges, ensures that all venues whatever their size or budget can compete in the Awards.
There are three categories of Best Pantomime, based on the seating capacity of the venues, with five nominees for each and there is representative spread across the UK and producers for the Awards. The largest producer Crossroads (23 productions) gets 2 nominations, with one each for other leading producers Imagine (19 productions), UK Productions (11 productions) , Evolution (10 pantomimes) , Little Wolf (5 productions), Jordan ( 8 productions) and the rest for in-house productions from Ayr in Scotland to Clywd in Wales, and Colchester in England. In addition to the Best Pantomime Awards, there are 19 announced categories for cast and creatives reflecting every aspect of a successful show.
Top of the list for nominations is Mother Goose, the rock ‘n roll panto at Theatr Clywd in Mold back in its newly refurbished home after a year in a tent on the site with Best Dame - Phylip Harries, Best Comic - Celia Cruwys-Finnigan, Best Newcomer - Imad Eldeen, Best Set - Adrian Gee and Best Contribution to Music - Tayo Akinbode. Their production regularly feature in the annual awards. Four other Best Pantomime venues that always do well are (1) Sheffield Lyceum, this year with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which, this year, has been nominated for Best Principal Leads - Aiofe Kenny and Matthew Cooke, Best Contribution for Music - James Harrison, and Best Supporting Artist - Marc Pickering; (2) Kings Theatre, Glasgow with Peter Pan being nominated for Best Magical Being - Darren Brownlie, Best Comic - Jonny Mac (another regular nominee); (3) Festival Theatre Edinburgh’s Cinderella, with Best Contribution to Music - Rick Coates and Andy Pickering, and Best Dame - Allen Stewart (yet another regular nominee); and (4) Blackpool Grand for Cinderella with Best Principal Lead - Kitty Harris, Best Direction - Kylie Butler, and Best Comic - Steve Royle. We should expect these productions to feature in the final winners when they are announced on 13 April.
Among the shows we saw this year that have done well includes the wonderful Salisbury Playhouse production of Sleeping Beauty with Best Panto (500-900 seats) and Katie Lias for both Best Set and Best Costume Design. We wrote that: “The organisation’s amazing workshops have again produced another fabulous set design, by Katie Lias, and range of costumes that place the action in the fashion centre of Europe, Salisbury-shire”. Just along the M4, the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon production of Cinderella has been nominated for Best Comic - Ben Goffe and Best Sisters - Eleanor Burke and Sophie Hirst. We wrote: “Ben Goffe’s charming central performances as Buttons gives it a fresh feel ….Goffe’s engaging and bubbly personality beautifully combines the comedy with his unrequited love for Cinders”.
The Wycombe Swan’s production of Aladdin has been nominated for Best Pantomime and Best Lighting - Jamie Corbridge. We described it as: “a wonderful production, looks stunning with the animated colourful digital set, and the cast working well together as an ensemble with each taking turns in the lead in the comedy to create a magical Christmas pantomime.”
Several productions that we featured in our Spotlight series in 2024 also feature in the Awards, confirming the quality of these venues’ in-house productions. Theatre Royal Windsor, which claims to be the longest continuing pantomime producing venue, gets a nomination for Best Secondary Lead - Mia Welsh in Dick Whittington. The New Wolsey Ipswich’s production of Sleeping Beauty gets two nominations for Vicki Stone’s script and Dan De Cruz’s music, plus the newly reopened Fareham Live gets a Best Sisters nomination. We wrote about them: “The villains of the story are the Ugly Sisters and in Gareth Mitchell and Garnon Davies as Euphemia and Lavinia, the show has two of the best young Sisters in the business. They made an impactful entrance through the auditorium dressed in miniskirts and leather jackets establishing their relationship with a good stage presence and quickly become, as they should be, the characters we love to hate.” The wonderful Hall for Cornwall in Truro gets a nomination for Best Supporting Artist in Jack and The Beanstalk for Charlotte Rutherford.
Another show we enjoyed immensely was Cinderella at the Cambridge Arts Theatre for which Harry Howle and Steven Roberts have been nominated for Best Sisters. In that show, they featured one the best slosh scenes in recent years with Buttons played by Matt Crosby that, in our view, deserves an Award in its own right!
There are so many productions to choose from so competition is always tight and many great performers who we highlighted in our review of the season don’t make the list (this year) such as Joe Pasquale at Wimbledon or Richard Cadell and Sooty at Woking, Kev Johns in Swansea, Mike Doyle in Cardiff, Paul Morse in Reading and Ben Roddy in Canterbury, but they do keep the audiences flocking back each year. But we are sure that even these established stars welcome the Awards and they, and their producers, will be celebrating the genre with everyone else at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking on 13 April when the winners will be announced.
For many in the industry, it will be a poignant night as the New Victoria was the last venue that Nigel Ellacott played Dame in 2023. He passed away in 2024 and will be honoured in the Special Recognition Award for Pantomime history, tradition and heritage, that he championed all his life, which will be announced on the night in what is sure to be a moment of celebration and remembrance.
The full list of nominees can be found here.
If you have not yet booked for next year’s pantomime at a venue near you, now is the time to be looking up what’s on and securing the best seats available for you and your family.