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Ugly sisters, golden geese and ancient punchlines are returning to theatres across the country this weekend as the pantomime programme creaks back into life.
More than 300 professional productions are booked, not all of them overpriced and dreadful. Pamela Anderson, Mickey Rooney and Britt Ekland are among the international stars struggling to make sense of the cross-dressing, the plate-breaking and the inevitable crop of soap actors, reality television has-beens and talent show cast-offs who dust down their dance steps every Christmas for the people of Milton Keynes or Mansfield.
For the panto purist, the first port of call is East London where a diminutive part-time employee at the Hackney Empire has become the standard bearer for this most eccentric of British traditions.
Susie McKenna, 47, has very firm views on how pantomimes should be done and a host of ecstatic reviews and hit shows behind her to support her arguments.
The giant board on the outside of the Empire theatre has been advertising Londons No 1 Pantomime for weeks. Clive Rowe, her regular Dame, was nominated for an Olivier award for his Mother Goose last year.
At the stage door Noel Morgan, the doorkeeper for six years, flashes a fabulous toothy smile and shakes his head in admiration. Miss McKenna? Shes the panto queen, he says. Yes she is. Tempting as it might be, there is no point in answering back with an Oh no she isnt. She is.
The daughter of two music hall performers, McKenna has been appearing in pantomimes since she was 6, was first a principal boy at 19 and has starred in, written or directed a pantomime (often all three) nearly every year since. Her first directing effort was at the Empire in 1994, with Barry Cryer and Michelle Collins. Aladdin, which opens on Saturday with Rowe once again filling the biggest frocks, will be her 13th.
Rehearsals in the architect Frank Matchams glorious 1,300-seat music hall began on Monday. The wings are crammed with neatly labelled props (2 x super soaker guns, 1 x African flyswat, 1 x Shrunk Wishy Washy) and on stage is a bright pink Morris Minor.
During a break McKenna explains why panto matters. Its the first time that most children come to the theatre and our opportunity to capture their imagination with stories that they know and then to twist them.
The Hackney audience is one of the most diverse in the country and she sees it as a huge responsibility to encourage them to bond by laughing at themselves and each other without being too nasty and without deflecting attention from the real fall guys, the Stoke Newington neighbours.
Pantomimes are perfect vehicles for debating knotty contemporary issues, McKenna says. The Twankeys are a problem family. Mother Goose is about consumer greed and learning about inner rather than outer beauty.
There are rules to follow, some of them dating back beyond Victorian music hall and others from McKennas own formula. The show has to be aimed predominately at children, there is no swearing, blasphemy or blue innuendo (saucy is about as far as we go) and she never kills off characters. Goodies come on from stage right, baddies from stage left. Abanazar can cross the stage because hes a flawed magician not an immortal, but its incredibly bad luck if fairies or witches do.
Reflecting the make-up of the audience, black artists have most of but not all the lead roles, the script is peppered with West Indian slang and the action is set in Hackneytopia, Ha-ka-Ne or some other fictionalised version of the area.
This year is the first time that McKenna has tackled Aladdin since 2004, when the Empire went head to head with the Old Vics posh panto, starring Sir Ian McKellen as Widow Twankey, and emerged victorious.
I will always be grateful to Sir Ian McKellen for that, she says. We were the underdogs and I think most critics came to see us because they thought that we would be the s**t ones. But the attention was wonderful. Now we are the ones to beat and I would be lying if I said I didnt feel it.
She is grateful for the competition after years when she felt that most pantomimes were not good enough, stuffed with Gladiators off the telly who couldnt cut it on stage. The doldrum days have gone now. People have realised that its not just about making money, its about getting kids into the theatre and not losing them to TV, films and video games.
Part of the responsibility for the dross served up over the years lies with the punters, McKenna believes. 'British audiences are really weird. They love mediocrity. Look at Jedward [the laughably bad X-Factor contestants]. Musical theatre people find that tough to swallow'.
Excellence is the only thing Im really interested in and excellence doesnt have to be arty farty. You can have excellence in panto. Rowe agrees, and says that he approaches pantomime just as seriously as Shakespeare. Although I would probably be more nervous about playing Lear than Widow Twankey.
**Panto figures
29 productions last year by QDS and First Family Entertainment had a turnover of 25 million
38 years running Christopher Biggins played a Dame until Im a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! interrupted his run in 2007
87 years old Mickey Rooney at his panto debut last year in Sunderland
Posted: 12/1/09 at 6:27am
Ugly sisters, golden geese and ancient punchlines are returning to theatres across the country this weekend as the pantomime programme creaks back into life.
More than 300 professional productions are booked, not all of them overpriced and dreadful. Pamela Anderson, Mickey Rooney and Britt Ekland are among the international stars struggling to make sense of the cross-dressing, the plate-breaking and the inevitable crop of soap actors, reality television has-beens and talent show cast-offs who dust down their dance steps every Christmas for the people of Milton Keynes or Mansfield.
For the panto purist, the first port of call is East London where a diminutive part-time employee at the Hackney Empire has become the standard bearer for this most eccentric of British traditions.
Susie McKenna, 47, has very firm views on how pantomimes should be done and a host of ecstatic reviews and hit shows behind her to support her arguments.
The giant board on the outside of the Empire theatre has been advertising Londons No 1 Pantomime for weeks. Clive Rowe, her regular Dame, was nominated for an Olivier award for his Mother Goose last year.
At the stage door Noel Morgan, the doorkeeper for six years, flashes a fabulous toothy smile and shakes his head in admiration. Miss McKenna? Shes the panto queen, he says. Yes she is. Tempting as it might be, there is no point in answering back with an Oh no she isnt. She is.
The daughter of two music hall performers, McKenna has been appearing in pantomimes since she was 6, was first a principal boy at 19 and has starred in, written or directed a pantomime (often all three) nearly every year since. Her first directing effort was at the Empire in 1994, with Barry Cryer and Michelle Collins. Aladdin, which opens on Saturday with Rowe once again filling the biggest frocks, will be her 13th.
Rehearsals in the architect Frank Matchams glorious 1,300-seat music hall began on Monday. The wings are crammed with neatly labelled props (2 x super soaker guns, 1 x African flyswat, 1 x Shrunk Wishy Washy) and on stage is a bright pink Morris Minor.
During a break McKenna explains why panto matters. Its the first time that most children come to the theatre and our opportunity to capture their imagination with stories that they know and then to twist them.
The Hackney audience is one of the most diverse in the country and she sees it as a huge responsibility to encourage them to bond by laughing at themselves and each other without being too nasty and without deflecting attention from the real fall guys, the Stoke Newington neighbours.
Pantomimes are perfect vehicles for debating knotty contemporary issues, McKenna says. The Twankeys are a problem family. Mother Goose is about consumer greed and learning about inner rather than outer beauty.
There are rules to follow, some of them dating back beyond Victorian music hall and others from McKennas own formula. The show has to be aimed predominately at children, there is no swearing, blasphemy or blue innuendo (saucy is about as far as we go) and she never kills off characters. Goodies come on from stage right, baddies from stage left. Abanazar can cross the stage because hes a flawed magician not an immortal, but its incredibly bad luck if fairies or witches do.
Reflecting the make-up of the audience, black artists have most of but not all the lead roles, the script is peppered with West Indian slang and the action is set in Hackneytopia, Ha-ka-Ne or some other fictionalised version of the area.
This year is the first time that McKenna has tackled Aladdin since 2004, when the Empire went head to head with the Old Vics posh panto, starring Sir Ian McKellen as Widow Twankey, and emerged victorious.
I will always be grateful to Sir Ian McKellen for that, she says. We were the underdogs and I think most critics came to see us because they thought that we would be the s**t ones. But the attention was wonderful. Now we are the ones to beat and I would be lying if I said I didnt feel it.
She is grateful for the competition after years when she felt that most pantomimes were not good enough, stuffed with Gladiators off the telly who couldnt cut it on stage. The doldrum days have gone now. People have realised that its not just about making money, its about getting kids into the theatre and not losing them to TV, films and video games.
Part of the responsibility for the dross served up over the years lies with the punters, McKenna believes. 'British audiences are really weird. They love mediocrity. Look at Jedward [the laughably bad X-Factor contestants]. Musical theatre people find that tough to swallow'.
Excellence is the only thing Im really interested in and excellence doesnt have to be arty farty. You can have excellence in panto. Rowe agrees, and says that he approaches pantomime just as seriously as Shakespeare. Although I would probably be more nervous about playing Lear than Widow Twankey.
**Panto figures
29 productions last year by QDS and First Family Entertainment had a turnover of 25 million
38 years running Christopher Biggins played a Dame until Im a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! interrupted his run in 2007
87 years old Mickey Rooney at his panto debut last year in Sunderland
Updated On: 12/1/09 at 06:27 AM
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