WEBF’s reflections on 2024/25 pantomime season
Photo credit: Paul Coltas
We may have only seen a selection of the 200 plus pantomimes this season across the UK, but we have travelled the length and breadth of the country over this festive period. Our visits included productions from the biggest producers: Crossroads, Imagine and UK Productions, as well as the carefully and economically crafted in-house shows. Here are some reflections on the year.
Audiences
Everywhere we visited, there have been full houses and the shows have been enthusiastically received with plenty of audience participation and young children in schools’ visits, cubs and brownie visits, or with families; obviously and vociferously enjoying themselves. It shows the genre is still strong and appealing and is good news for all of those venues’ finances! We do feel that nearly £10 for a light up wand and £5 for a programme is pushing the boundaries of acceptable pricing but there still seems to be plenty of uptake, bowing to the pester power! It has been good to see the return to kids on stage for song sheets, which create some of the most memorable moments of the shows and really demonstrate the skill of Dames and Comics in judging how to manage and ad lib with them. Matt Crosby and Stuart Simons at Cambridge Arts Theatre handled four kids with great wit and charm this year, while also promoting the sponsor! Long may this remain a key feature of pantomime.
A more recent trend is the use of large water pistols for spraying the audience and it still amazes us at how positively young audiences react to this interaction. Disappointingly, the Dames seem to have picked less ruthlessly on an unfortunate man in the front row and even when they did, it seemed less sustained throughout the show. When handled well with charm and wit, this can be a great running gag. A new development in two shows was planted cast members picked from the audience to join them on stage and this certainly adds to the fun and interactivity. At Salisbury Playhouse, this gag was sustained in the second half to good effect when the “audience member” emerged as the Prince. The New Wolsey, Ipswich pantomime had two audience members on stage competing to make balloon swords to cut through the thorns which worked very well. Audience participation is such a vital part of pantomime and keeps it feeling fresh and fun.
Style of Storytelling
We can see three well established different approaches to producing pantomime in our visits this year. There are shows that are star led; they bring their own music hall/variety material which forms the basis of the show with the narrative merely filling in the gaps. When you have experienced performers like Joe Pasquale at Wimbledon this year (next year at Swansea Grand), or Richard Cadell and Sooty at Woking, they have enough proven business to build a show around and the audience know what they are booking for when they see the poster. There are shows that are Dame-led whereby the performer has been at the venue for many years and the audience return to see their latest interpretation of the title. Kev Johns in Swansea, Mike Doyle in Cardiff, Paul Morse in Reading and Ben Roddy in Canterbury all have an immediate rapport with their audience, established call backs and a confident comic style that provides the heart of the entertainment. The third style is the ensemble production, partly driven by economics, partly by an in-house creative team who craft the show. These can be some of the most joyous experiences starting with a good script, with plenty of local references and topical gags (often updated during the run) and direction that ensures the principals work together in delivering the pantomime business and share the singing and dancing. Ultimately they create, when done properly, a more satisfying narrative and pantomime experience as you will see at in-house produced shows at the delightful Salisbury Playhouse, the intimate Wilde Theatre in Bracknell, Chris Jarvis’ shows at Poole Lighthouse and the wonderful rock’n’roll pantomime at the New Wolsey, Ipswich.
Modern Sensibilities
The pantomime genre has learned to evolve and adapt from its Victorian hey day. This evolution is essential and is now being sensitively handled by producers. This year has seen the return of the Aladdin title in bigger numbers after several years of criticism for its portrayal of characters from Old Peking. Now usually relocated to an imaginary country based around the venue’s own location, Wycombia for the Swan in High Wycombe, Hayesavia for the Beck in Hayes and last year the Jurassic coast for the Lighthouse in Poole, this localisation starts the process of addressing the potentially racist elements while successfully connecting the location to the audience. Equally, the kiss from the Prince to awake an unconscious Snow White or Sleeping Beauty is carefully addressed to ensure it is seen as consensual, by either a line early on when they first meet or in the Poole Lighthouse’s Sleeping Beauty this year, a statement of consent in the programme which is drawn attention to from the stage prior to the kiss. It may only be a Christmas entertainment but these underlying cultural or environmental messages have real value to the young audiences.
Staging
One of the biggest expenses of staging a pantomime is, of course, the physical sets and costumes; the cost of which cannot be recouped over a single five-week season and therefore have to be used in multiple years. We have seen the incredible impact of the Palladium Pantomimes, reinstated since 2016 by Crossroads Productions, where the wonderful Twin FX special effects now regularly appear around the country with, for example, Fanny the Wonder Bike flying over the audience at Wimbledon this year and the R22 helicopter impressively flying in Woking. Equally, the gorgeous array of costumes from the Palladium including the dancing pumpkin men (at Cardiff this year) now adding colour and quality to so many shows. The smaller venues have to reuse sets from year to year as Salisbury Playhouse does using its own workshops to sustainably reuse as much as possible, or hire in from the big scenic stores like Scenic Projects as Poole Lighthouse did renovating the Sleeping Beauty set. Imagine now have a number of digital sets where animated imagery can be shown to enhance the setting or respond to the in-stage action. This is an exciting new development and certainly worked well at Wycombe Swan for Aladdin and Reading Hexagon for Cinderella but was less successful on the smaller stage at the Grand in Swansea for Jack and the Beanstalk, where a hybrid of digital and traditional sets was all a bit overwhelming. However, these elements certainly give the impression of high production values and overall have upped the quality of pantomimes in recent years.
Comedy Business
What really makes a good show is the quality of the traditional comedy business included in the show. Audiences have come to expect certain routines in each show and producers include them both to satisfy that interest and because simply, they work as a laughter generating element. The Ghost bench scene has become a staple of nearly every show with its “It behind you”, “We’ll have to sing it again then won’t we” and “Charming” punchline. It was good to see some innovation this year to freshen up the routine with ghosts chasing principals through the auditorium in Wyvern Swindon, and Swansea Grand using a digital spider to generate the responses. Another overused routine, which always works is the “12 Days of Christmas”, in its standard form with “five toilet rolls” and a “bra that was made for three”, and we were delighted to see some innovation in this routine this year which freshened it up while honouring the tradition. Fareham Live used “five custard pies” to good effect, Bath Theatre Royal “five rubber rings”, Swansea Grand “five Welsh leeks” to give it a local flavour, and Poole Lighthouse replaced all the props with beauty products! Windsor Theatre Royal cleverly extended the gag by announcing on the tannoy before the show that it was cancelled as someone had stolen all the props and then gradually found them as the show progressed.
Around these two routines, there are a host of wonderful gags, routines and sketches developed over the years that can be dropped in to add to the laughs and mayhem. If anything, it is these that need to be evolved and included to sustain the traditions of variety, music hall and traditional pantomime. The Slosh routine is one element that should always be included, even if not everyone can achieve the grand scale of the brilliant dog grooming parlour truck of Cambridge Arts Theatre with water and shaving foam, wonderfully executed by Matt Crosby and the wicked sisters. Lesser versions with a large plastic mat can still be seen, for example, at The Hexagon in Reading with buckets of foam, and Poole Lighthouse in a wallpapering sketch. The cooking, baking and icing scenes provide another opportunity for some traditional gags and occasional innovation. Word play of tongue twisters, Mastermind routines and pun runs also still provide plenty of opportunity for two or three performers to deliver strong comedy routines. Matt Slack digitised his clever flag pun run at Birmingham Hippodrome this year adding to its slickness. There are opportunities to develop and evolve the school room sketch, the laundry routines and the milking gags which we felt were missed this year. Sadly, we did not see the incredibly clever Mr Who, Mr What and Mr Why double act delivery, made famous by Abbott and Costello in the 1930’s, but we are sure that somewhere in the UK will have included this brilliant routine. One routine in need of retirement or complete reinvention is the Trunk Of Truth in which a cast member’s clothes are removed every time a lie is told, which saw an outing in the Richmond show. In our view, a production needs at least four of these traditional comedy elements to really deliver on the traditional laugh as well as a well written opening patter from the Dame or Comic or both.
Conclusion
The pantomime genre is evolving and feels stronger than ever. It is a wonderful first introduction to live theatre for young audiences especially as they are told to turn off their phones until the finale! A good narrative with heart and positivity, attractive and colourful settings and well executed comedy business are essential, together with a mix of traditional and modern musical numbers, stitched together by a director and cast who care about their audience and the genre and deliver with energy and love creates the perfect family Christmas entertainment. Whether you see one each year or many like us, it is as an essential part of the festivities as present giving and turkey, and we are already looking forward to next year’s shows! Book now for 2025/26.
Nick Wayne