REVIEW: Snow White by Anton Benson Productions (Online)

Pantomime has always been a local event with families supporting their local venue each year with familiar actors returning and playing different characters “this year”. The Pandemic has temporarily changed this relationship with audiences, and it is fascinating to see how producers brave enough to put their shows online in streamed shows have adapted to the new environment. It also means it is more competitive and audiences at home can select from a range of shows and compare them without travelling. Anton Benson is an experienced producer and following his Christmas production of Once upon a Pantomime with a host of star names crammed into the show, he has returned at Easter with a simpler live stream of Snow White captured on the stage and largely directed as if the audience is present in the auditorium. The result at times with inconsistent sound and poorly illuminated areas of the stage feels a bit like watching a technical rehearsal where the hard-working cast miss the ability to feed off the audience reaction. The added audience applause and cheers sound effect simply emphasise what is missing.

Basil Brush as the Henchman is the standout star of the show, benefiting from close-ups not possible in a live show which sometimes leave the large box from which he appears out of shot. His amiable personality and silly puns were developed on TV and easily translate into the streamed medium in a way not possible when he is wheeled on and off in a live show. The tongue twister recipe sketch is neatly and effectively done.

REVIEW: Alice in Wonderland at the Motherwell Theatre (Online)

Motherwell Theatre, in association with Starbright Entertainments, regularly produce an Easter pantomime so this year they are forced to deliver their latest one in a streamed version into our homes. This has the huge advantage of making it available to a much wider audience rather than just their local Scottish one. The result is a fresh slick eighty-minute retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a technically very good-looking show, well-lit and costumed with a high-quality clear video and audio track.

Written and directed by Phil Norton with additional material by local Motherwell Panto legend Ian ‘Sheepie’ Smith who also plays the White Rabbit it is a combination of straightforward storytelling of the classic story combined with some very familiar pantomime routines and a sprinkling of magic. In the absence of a live audience, they imagine the responses from the virtual audience while addressing them straight down the camera. Sheepie’s comic face and energy engage the remote audience well and you almost believe he can hear the responses!

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Theatre Royal St Helens (Online)

Jane Joseph and Chantelle Nolan, the mother and daughter team who run the Theatre Royal St Helens set the tone in their charming preshow chat reflecting on the Christmas Pantomime which was cut six shows short by the Lockdown. You sense the pride they take in their venue and the productions. We are told that the sets and costumes are all new and they look very good in the bright colours in the tradition of pantomime. Indeed, it is the combined creative talent behind this show that makes it a polished and enjoyable ninety minutes.

Directed by Chantelle Nolan herself with a script by the comic lead Simple Simon, Reece Sibbald, they tell the traditional story of Jack and the Beanstalk with a good balance of well-executed comedy routines and a great music selection. The Music Supervisor is Callum Clarke, and the choices allow some excellent dance routines by Choreographer Nazene Langfield with the leads and a chorus of four girls and two boys. As a result, the well-paced show has many highlights.

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran

Although Pantomime these days is traditionally a Christmas event, there have always been Easter outings for some titles and while theatres remain closed this Easter several streamed versions are available. Congress Theatre in Cwmbran, South Wales, offers a seventy-minute Jack and The Beanstalk, and it is a fun well-produced and captured show that is sure to entertain young families.

Tom Whalley is a new name to me in writing pantomime scripts but following his excellent Pantolive production of Cinderella with all its interactivity, I was interested to see his more traditional pantomime script for this welsh production of Jack and the Beanstalk. He again sticks closely to the traditional version of this Pantomime story but peppers it with good and dreadful jokes. However, it misses the live audience and despite some audience reactions edited in you can still sense the challenge for the comic routines without the audience response. Even if we are laughing at home as we frequently are with his scripts the cast feel slightly muted by the absence of real interaction and are left weakly laughing at their own jokes.

REVIEW: Cinderella, the interactive online Pantomime by PantoLive

Pantomime is essentially a live experience and many of the Christmas streams failed to capture that audience interaction which makes a trip to the theatre to see one such a brilliant family experience or school outing. Panto Live have embraced the digital streaming technology to create a very clever and well thought out interactive experience in our homes or classrooms. It's available as a live stream until 4th April and then on-demand after that and it is definitely worth giving it a try especially with young children over the Easter holiday.

The pantomime is shot live in front of a green screen, with 3D virtual worlds, effects and backgrounds generated in Unreal Engine, a world-building tool used in video games and TV shows such as Fortnite. This gives each scene depth and a magical feel with moving elements, special effects, and lighting sources. It looks very good with only occasional “halo” effects around the characters in front of the images. 

Pantomime Round-Up 2020

Usually around this time the vast majority of the three hundred or more Pantomimes end their Christmas runs and cast and crew get a well-earned rest after an intensive fifty-plus show season to packed houses all around the UK. Families will have celebrated together the festive fun and excitement of theatre and young children will have had the first experience of a live show. What is more, the regional theatres will have earned enough income to sustain the venue throughout the year ahead until the next Christmas. 

The Pandemic has changed that for the 2020/21 season with around 200 cancelled or postponed early in the year until 2021 before they even began rehearsals and worse still only a couple opening and completing the scheduled runs. Those Producers who took the chance to go ahead and rehearse, market, and open a show were stopped in their tracks by Tier 3 and 4 closures or worse the need to self-isolate cast members due to illnesses. Many of those affected by closure either planned or rushed to capture their shows so that they could be streamed into our homes. Cinemas do provide a great outlet for captured Theatre, but they too were largely closed so the only way to view was on the home PC / Smart TV. According to the British Theatre Guide some eighty shows were available to view.

Curiously the usually most prolific producer QDOS with 35 shows in a normal season resisted the temptation to stream any archived shows or to capture any of the ten shows that the National Heritage helped to fund to "save Christmas" so many of the biggest Pantomime stars were not to be seen. They did manage to open Pantoland at the Palladium, Sleeping Beauty at the Mayflower in Southampton, and Robinson Crusoe in Plymouth but the first closed soon after opening when London went into tier 3, Southampton closed due to cast illness and Plymouth nearly completed its run until it fell foul of another move into tier 3 regulations. 

REVIEW: Jack and the Beanstalk at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre (Online)

Paul Hendy and Evolution have created bite-size pantos for streaming amongst the eighty offered during December by companies all around the country. They offer a taste of what Pantomime is all about and bring a little bit of festive joy into our homes. However they have shortcut the process by using identical scripts and music for the shows and having seen the Sheffield version, Damian saves Panto and the Canterbury version, Nurse Nellie saves Panto we hoped that the Lichfield Garrick version, Jack and the Beanstalk would offer something different. While the wrap-around theme is varied slightly for Jack and Beanstalk, the basic show is identical save for a few tweaks, I assume from the cast. It is also the most expensive of the three to buy.

The Garrick show is topped and tailed with sponsors messages and a request for donations to support the venue and this at least justifies creating three separate shows from a single production. It is well captured on the stage of the theatre with I think a pre-recorded music track but some good looking Beanstalk sets and gives an outing to the ten-foot Giant Pandemic when they climb the Beanstalk. 

REVIEW: Once Upon a Pantomime by Anton Benson Productions (Online)

Anton Benson Production usually stages half a dozen shows each Christmas and as they were cancelled took the bold decision to record an online version at Rhyl Pavilion incorporating many of the usual headliners for their shows. The challenge was then two-fold; firstly, how to incorporate multiple comics, villains, fairies and heroines into one show and secondly how to capture the show for streaming online securely. The solution to the first challenge was that Anton Benson and the two directors/scriptwriters, Ryan Greaves and Katie Salmon created a mash-up of Cinderella, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk and Aladdin where the evil Karona stops the key scene in each before love can succeed. It's a clever idea and means some twenty performers get to play a lead role! The resulting stream suggested that technicalities behind capturing a stage show for streaming proved more difficult to overcome. 

As well as directing, Katie Salmon plays Fairy Tale, a linking character between each scene and Ryan Greaves plays the multiple characters of Wally, Wishee Washy and Buttons with plenty of enthusiasm and energy. They are surrounded by a host of well-known faces from TV and Pantomime, many in very short walk on or video appearances. Veteran Children's entertainer Dave Benson Philips plays the Genie and the King with his usual larger than life over the top style and sings "Look at me" from Sister Act. Barney Harwood plays the Princes and opens Act 2 with "let me entertain you". TV talent show stars Gareth Gates (the mirror in the wall), Bobby Crush, Opportunity knocks winner, (Vomitilda, an ugly sister), Sam Bailey, a GB Pantomime winner in 2019 (Fairy Godmother), Xfactor contestant Lauren Platt (Jasmine) and BGT's Ashleigh Butler and Sully (Aurora) all make appearances. TV quiz show chasers Anne Heggerty (Salmonella) and Mark Labbett (Fleshcreep) also get walk-on roles. Gemma Bissix, TV soap actress plays Morgana and Graham Cole, best known for the Bill, plays Abanazar. 

REVIEW: Nurse Nellie saves Panto at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury (Online)

Paul Hendy's Evolution produces some very good shows and the Marlowe in Canterbury is home for one of his productions. It won Best Pantomime (750-1500 seats) in 2017 and its regular Dame, Ben Roddy, won Best Dame in 2018. Also his Musical Director, James Harrison won best musical supervision in the 2020 Awards. As the usual Pantomimes were cancelled, Evolution created a short-form show which is available in an online stream for both the Marlowe and the Sheffield venues. Hendy has written the script and directs the shows and uses the same basic script for both venues, although thanks to Walker Construction, the Marlowe show is available for free. It distils the essence of Panto into a high energy, high-quality capture from the stage of the venue with a limited audience of employees to provide some reaction.

Nurse Nellie runs the Panto Emporium from which Professor Von BadApple (Ian Kirby) plans to steal the props and the essence of Panto. Can the Dame with the help of her son Billy (Lloyd Hollett) and heroine Jill (Cara Hodgson) stop him with the help of the Fairy, Clarice Alexander Burnett? This thin plotline provides the connection between a series of clever new jokes and classic old gags which are brilliantly delivered by the cast. They know how to point the joke, repeating the setup line before delivering the punchline, to maximise the effect. The show has plenty of Covid jokes, those that "take two weeks to see if you get it" and mocks the shortage of toilets rolls by making them the item the audience must watch to stop it being stolen. It also pokes fun at the awful Government Advert for non-essential jobs, such as actors, retraining by referencing Fatima. ( NB. Like the script itself this review is an edited version of the Sheffield review!).

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Turbine Theatre

Pantomime at this time of year is usually a family affair but there has always existed an adult version which targets a narrower audience in which there are no boundaries. Jim Davison toured often with Sinderella and Boobs in the Wood and versions are still available online but this version from Paul Taylor Mills at the Turbine Theatre definitely does not start from the same outlook as those nineties shows. Instead his Cinderella is a 2020 socially distanced romp that soon lives up to its billing of "not for the faint-hearted". It is definitely for an 18 plus audience and you soon lose count of the use of the "F-word"s, repeated often for cheap laughs from the Battersea audience. 

The pedigree of the show bodes well. Taylor-Mills has had some creative success since he opened the tiny Turbine Theatre next to the redeveloping Battersea Power station. Jodie Prenger who co-wrote the show with Neil Hurst, found fame on the TV Talent show "I'd do anything" and has established herself as a Leading Lady in Oliver!, Annie, Spamalot and most recently in a revival of A Taste of Honey. Director Lizzie Connolly met her star of this show, Rufus Hound who plays Buttons in the West End production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrel. The cast is restricted by the rule of six so alongside Hound are a hard-working talent cast of five.

REVIEW: Dick Whittington at the National Theatre (Online)

There are now eighty Pantomimes available online according to the British Theatre Guide website competing for our viewing time at home and targeting the three million ticket buyers who usually see a live pantomime each Christmas. Many charge a fee to watch or request a donation and those funds are so important to these venues for their survival until next year's Pantomime. With the cancellation of so many Pantomimes this year the National Theatre decided to put on its own version which, when London went into Tier 3/4 Lockdown, was forced to close and a captured preview is now available free of charge for a short period. It is prefaced with an appeal to donate or buy tickets in 2021 for the other affected venues but should the significant resources on display at the NT compete against the multitude of online Pantomimes that seek our attention and funds? Indeed should public funds be used at all to create a show competing with them? The answer must be that they need to do something different and raise the bar to justify the competition.

The NT has restaged the Lyric Hammersmith's version of Dick Whittington in the round in a socially distanced way which creates the feel of an expensive circus ring with traps and lights embedded in the floor. It is a modern retelling of the usual rags to riches story with only the occasional double entendre. Indeed in Sheffield venues Damian's PopUp Panto, also available online for a fee, it defines the essence of Pantomime as "pure joy, quirky humour, warm energy, familiarity and nostalgic". The NT version seems devoid of this essence, the characters are overly intense and serious, almost smug and self-satisfied, and the production lacks warmth and was conceived in a London bubble.

REVIEW: PANTOMONIUM! The Pantomime at the Blackpool Grand Theatre (Online)

Martin Dodds, the producer behind UK Productions usually puts on nearly a dozen Pantomimes each year including shows at the very fine Theatre Royal Bath and the magnificent Frank Matcham designed Blackpool Grand Theatre. There is something magical about seeing Pantomime in these wonderful old buildings that resonate of all the past performers who have trod the boards there that make a pilgrimage to see their annual production a joy. This year it had proved impossible with Pantomimes cancelled before they opened and even those that opened like the Palladium, The Mayflower Southampton and the Lighthouse in Poole closing after a few performances due to Covid restrictions or worse illness in the cast. There are currently eighty online pantomimes listed by British Theatre Guide and the challenge is how to adapt this interactive family experience to the small screen. Jon Monie (scriptwriter) and Martin Dodds make a solid attempt in their version Pantomonium filmed on the stage of the Blackpool Grand.

They start by assembling a stellar award-winning small team. Monie won Best Script for his 2019 Beauty and Beast at GB Pantomime Awards, Tom Lister won Best Villain for his Captain Hook and Olivia Birchenough won Best Leading lady in Cinderella at the 2017 awards and Katie Hill won Best choreography at the Blackpool Grand in the 2020 Awards. They add to the team Steve Royle, the madcap comedian who came third in the 2020 Britain’s Got Talent TV show, although as he mocks himself, if Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world, who knows who is third fastest! To complete the cast is the usual Dame from the Theatre Royal Bath, the delightful gentle Nick Wilton. Together they have the experience to stage and perform Pantomime business.

REVIEW: Cinderella at KidZania (Online)

KidZania is a scaled city replica of real life for children from 4-14 years, designed to empower and inspire, located in West London (W12) which of course was closed when London went into Tier 4 on 16th December. However, they were bold enough to capture a version of Cinderella earlier this year so can offer the kids a glimpse of what they are missing. The production is filmed inside the building using the street scenes as a background for the Village, the ballroom and forest and a traditional stage cloth to set the Hard Up Hall kitchen. It works extremely well giving the show a realistic feel with depth of scene and acting as a promotion for the venue.

Maybe because it is targeted at the same 4 to 14-year-olds with a low attention span in a multimedia world, the show is kept short to just forty-five minutes and they focus on the music rather than the traditional pantomime business and jokes. We only get a handful of the old gags (including a good Weakest Link parody) which are slipped into the storytelling that speeds along until the custard pies provide a weak finish. There ought to be a warning message to the under fourteens "to not try this at home" when Cinderella gets shut in a fridge as opposed to the usual dungeon or cupboard. The call-outs to the audience of course go unanswered which feels flat and they don't acknowledge the silence but pretend there is a response. 

REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty at the Mayflower in Southampton

Michael Harrison and QDOS’s bold plan to stage 10 pantomimes in a Covid safe way around the country this Christmas largely underwritten by the National Lottery was thrown into despairing disarray by tier 3 announcements as they prepared to open. Three opened one of which was closed shortly afterwards so only Plymouth (see earlier review) and Sleeping Beauty at the Mayflower in Southampton will run their planned course. But if you live in a Tier 2 area along the south coast you should make every effort to get along to see Sleeping Beauty. It is a joyous timely reminder of the Christmas family festive outing that Pantomime provides, and, on the day, the South East went into Tier 4 lockdown provides as welcome glimmer of hope for 2021 that theatres can and will reopen.  

Sleeping Beauty is often one of the weaker titles in the Pantomime season, but this stripped-down 90-minute version devised by Harrison himself suits the format perfectly and provides a linking narrative to some brilliantly executed traditional pantomime routines full of silly, madcap entertainment that had the socially distanced audience giggling away almost constantly. It helps that its stars have strong cabaret routines that they effortlessly fitted into the story as well as a lot of pantomime experience between them and are supported by a hard-working strong ensemble cast.

REVIEW: D!CK The Adult Panto at the Guildford Fringe (Online)

In a year full of uncertainty, one thing you can be certain of is that the Guildford Fringe production of ‘D!CK the Adult Panto’ will leave no innuendo unspoken.

Without doubt the most obvious choice for an adult pantomime but writers James Chalmers, Nick Wyschna and Charlotte Bateup do step up to the plate by adding plenty of risqué comedy and on the line humour that is perfectly relevant for 2020. 

The witty one-liners, political quips and ingeniously raunchy references are perfectly questionable and there’s much more than dick jokes alone. 

The musical choices throughout provided some old school nostalgia with both musical and pop numbers from the last 3 decades. The lyrical rewrites are clever and imaginative but be prepared to never hear those songs in the same way again.

REVIEW: Snow White in the Seven Months of Lockdown at the King's Head Theatre (Online)

Last year the talented and innovative Creative team at Charles Court Opera presented the fabulous Five-star Nativity Panto (one of the highlights of last season pantomime offerings) at their traditional Kings Head Theatre venue, the intimate space behind the bar at the famous London Pub theatre in Islington. This year in Tier 3 and in any case in a venue almost impossible to socially distance in, they present their 14th annual Christmas show online. As in previous years it shows all the creativity of past shows and the fine singers with a strong Opera background have a great deal of fun reworking well known tunes with new lyrics by David Eaton. They offer two versions Adult and Children’s, and I watched the Adult one!

Director and writer John Savournin fully embrace the medium and the year we have had with a show packed with witty jokes about Covid and Lockdown and adds “interactive” moments in which we vote for actions by the cast. It’s a nice innovation although it does not always work and in some ways slows the pace of the show as the screen semi freezes. It is no substitute for a shout out from a loud audience but a bold attempt in the circumstances. Indeed, the production values are quite high with a colourful set in the Riverside Studio, bright good-looking costumes, and effective lighting so that the various locations, the cottage exterior and interior, Queen’s Mirror and the woods are artily created and set the scene for the five regular main performers.

REVIEW: Robinson Crusoe at the Theatre Royal Plymouth

Thanks to the National Lottery, producer Michael Harrison & QDOS and the Sun Saver free tickets scheme it was with some excitement and anticipation we travelled down to Plymouth in Devon to see our first Christmas Pantomime of the reduced season and a rarely seen title of Robinson Crusoe. How appropriate to go in search of Crusoe in a city associated with Alexander Selkirk, the 18th century shipwrecked survivor on whom Daniel Defoe based his famous story and to stand on Plymouth Hoe on a windy December evening before the show gazing out at the ocean. However, that was as close to the original story that we got as this stripped back production borrows the title only to link a series of familiar routines in a music hall style show, but at least it was live theatre and for that we must be thankful.

The Theatre Royal has a wonderful modern spacious 1300 seat auditorium but, on this occasion, the ultra-cautious management can only make available every other row and leave two empty seats between each group in the filled rows. It inevitably mutes the atmosphere. They also dispense with all bar and café sales and programme and merchandising sales therefore taking no ancillary income and are careful to release the audience at the end on a row-by-row basis. There is no interval either in the 80-minute show to avoid queues at the toilets (which are open). It is a very safe feeling environment for the face covered audience.

The Past, Present & Future of Pantomime

Pantomime is often a child's first experience of live theatre and therefore it plays a critical role in establishing a young person’s love of live entertainment. It is also a unique shared experience as the whole family go together and the genre is built on audience interactions and traditional calls and shout outs. Sadly, this year there will not be the usual hundreds of venues staging a pantomime, and thousands of actors and technical staff will be unemployed. Only a few have survived the Pandemic and even then, in an abbreviated form, led by Qdos with Lottery funded shows in large venues to ensure they are Covid safe.

Qdos has established itself as the leading Pantomime production company usually has 35 productions each year including the two leading venues of the London Palladium and Birmingham Hippodrome but there are many other companies who usually produce multiple productions (UK productions, Imagine, PHA, Jordan and Evolution) and lots of “in house” productions. All of them are built on the same traditional elements that have made the genre so established over the last two hundred years.

REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

QDOS has built its reputation for Pantomimes with high production values and big budgets with all-star casts and large special FX but they also run several smaller regional venues and stage shows for them at Christmas. The Wyvern Swindon is such a venue with a capacity of 650 and this year they entrusted Chris Jarvis with writing, directing and leading the cast as Happy Harry in an enjoyable retelling of Sleeping Beauty. He keeps the other fairies bestowing their wishes on the baby Rose, seeks to entrap the Prince as the culprit of the fatal spinning wheel and neatly avoids the need to travel forward in time by offering 100 years sleep or kiss of a true love as alternatives, not sequential requirements. The result is a lively entertaining well-balanced show with a strong ensemble feel to the cast of 7 principals, 5 dancers and 3 juveniles with a good mix of comedy business and well-known musical numbers.

Ben Kennedy supervises and arranges the music and with choreographer Lucy Dungate includes well drilled versions of "Burn Baby Burn", "Time Warp", "Walking on Sunshine", "Higher Love", "Can't stop the beat", "Don't stop me now" and "World of your imagination" with a full sound from the band of three, although in some parts of the venue the sound mix muffled the vocals. They are all upbeat recognisable tunes and add to the party atmosphere. The 3 juvenile female dancers are perfectly integrated into the professional dance routines to make a team of eight in the big numbers.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Hexagon, Reading

Cinderella is the best pantomime title with a delightfully familiar story of good overcoming evil in family conflict and while the writers of the Lyric Hammersmith and Southampton NST felt the need to play with the story, Justin Fletcher sticks to a straight traditional retelling of the tale in his tenth appearance at Hexagon Pantomime. The result is a gently paced Christmas treat for the young families of Reading.

Fletcher, better known to his young audience as Mr Tumbles as well as writing the script stars as Buttons and benefits from director Stephen Boden, the man behind the producers Imagine, and Adrian Edmeades as choreographer ensuring a balanced mix of song, dance and Panto business in a disciplined controlled production with an even pace and good use of all the cast members. Fletcher responds by doing what he does best charmingly and un-aggressively engages the audience in an effortless way.