Pantoland Approaches! — Page 3

Warwick Thompson of Bloomberg News explains panto to us dumb colonists.

And he liked the Hackney Empire too!

"Boo, Hiss," Cry Fans as Villains Romp in Silly U.K. Pantos

Using panto in a derogatory form...? typical American theatre critic. whats so wrong with going to theatre and enjoying yourself, after all theatre is, to the masses, a way of entertainment. we don't all get free tickets to shows, and expect nothing by styalised, high art. We dont all want to be leaving the theatre,utterly confused as to why we paid £55 on the show. Long live panto...and fun, happy, light musical theatre




(no offence meant to American Theatre Critics...much)

Saw Cinderella at The Mayflower, Southampton on Saturday and absolutely loved it.

Biggins was as funny and sweet as can be as Buttons, Matthew Kelly and Matt Rixon made splendid ugly sisters, Stephanie Powers, as the fairy godmother, has got a passable singing voice and legs to die for (and she can still kick 'em really high!). Craig McLachlan was as camp as anything as Prince Charming and his first costume was so tight-fitting it left nothing to the imagination.

The sets were fantastic - they'd obviously thrown a lot of money at them.

Music-wise I couldn't help but laugh at some of the odd choices. Opening with an instrumental of 'The Ballad of Sweeney Todd' and then Stephanie singing 'Putting It Together' from 'Sunday In The Park With George', I thought we were in for a run through the Sondheim songbook, which would have been so post-modern it would have been hilarious. Sadly it wasn't to be but we did get 'Not While I'm Around' from 'Sweeney Todd', 'Loathing' and 'Popular' from 'Wicked' and 'Money, Money, Money'.

During the singalong they got four kids up on stage including one 5 year-old boy dressed as a donkey(!) and a 7 year-old girl who upstaged even Biggins.

Tonite (Tue) Hackney -'Mother Goose'. Cant wait, old friend of mine Susie McKenna directing!
2mrw Wimbledon -'Cinderella'. Curious!
Fri -'Peter Pan' -Richmond. Not looking forward to this one!
Sunday 'Aladdin' -Cardiff. Cant wait!
Tues 'Cinderella' -Swansea. My mate Su Pollard!
Will be seeing Bromley, Woking, Southampton and Birmingham in January.
There will be others too.

Updated On: 12/16/08 at 11:42 AM

Am jealous wanna see Mr Toon in Woking.

There's a video piece about panto's on BBC News = o to the entertainment section and its there!