It’s behind us. The pantomime season, that is.
If you’re nitpicking (Mrs Betty Evans of Fishguard Harbour), I’m aware the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, panto is running until this coming weekend, due to the demand for tickets.
In Wales, the Rainbow Valley Productions version of“Sleeping Beauty” will be at the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran, during February half-term, after its sell-out Christmas season at Blackwood Miners’ Institute.
And, in Llanelli, the Friendship Theatre Group’s Cinderella starts at Ffwrnes Theatre on Thursday and runs until February 1.
But . . .
For most UK theatres, the panto season is over and the costumes, props and scenery are stored in warehouses until they re-appear in different productions next Christmas.
The pantomimes at the London Palladium are said to be the most extravagantly expensive in the country.
I’ve not seen any of them, but understand that each year they feature spectacular production values and a cast stuffed with real celebrities – not ‘reality’ stars.
Apparently, they also include a relentless barrage of double entendres so outrageously on-the-nose they may as well be single entendres, which you might not expect in what is, after all, family entertainment.
Then again, as the ticket prices are on a par with those of West End musicals, I don’t know if many families can afford to see it!
Today’s pantomimes tend to open any time from late November. When I was knee-high to all seven of the Seven Dwarves, they always opened on Boxing Day.
Then, in most major towns and cities, a four-week run was the norm, although some went on a lot longer than that.
A friend recalled (back in the late 1960s) seeing Mike and Bernie Winters in the final week of their panto, “Robin Hood” at the Bristol Hippodrome, during the Easter Holidays!
The duo just ‘walked’ through the show, looking jaded.
Not something that was ever said of the Victorian King Of Panto – Dan Lemo.
His shows filled the enormous Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, every season for years, some running until March.
His “Babes In The Wood” ran from Christmas, 1888, until the end of April!
I’m reliably informed that the writing and planning for the next pantomime season starts immediately after the previous one ends.
Oh yes it does!