Christmas Pantomimes

[Crusoe]

Went to the one in St Albans on Sunday. Celebrity count: Rachel Stevens, CBeebies' Mr Bloom.

Was surprisingly near the knuckle in places.

Ugly sister: "We've brought you a present from Paris. It's a bath bomb."
Cinderella: "You mean something that you put in the bath to make it fizzy?"
Opens parcel. Pauses. "Er. It's a toaster."

Buttons: "I love you!"
Cinderella: "Oh, Buttons, I love you too, but like a brother and sister."
Buttons: "That's okay, we can move to Norfolk."

[Patrick Thistle]

That second one made me laugh

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

A friend's eldest is in Wizard of Oz in Carlisle, in the munchkin-based chorus. I might go along to see how she gets on.

We went last night. The stars were her and her tricksy dog off Britains Got Talent, as Dorothy and Toto. A former Eurovision contestant (not of the fame calibre of ONJ, Katrina of the Waves, or even Gina G) played the witch but as usual the breakfast show host on CFM ("Cumbria's best mix of music") was the actual centre of the show, playing the scarecrow.

Selected joke topic count - Donald Trump 2, Brexit 1, Theresa May 1, Carlisle United's recent lack of success 1, Cumbria County Council 1, testicles 5, homosexuality 2.

Our mate's daughter did great, her 11th show of the run (they have three munchkin teams in rotation).

I'd never given much thought to pantomime rights but, despite clearly using the title, characters and plot of The a Wizard of Oz they evidently weren't allowed to use any of the songs from the film, and instead tended to be filled out with big pop songs (My Heart Will Go On, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Toxic, some song from Greatest Showman etc).

Also I didn't realise how many shows they did - 38 in total of which ours was the penultimate, with the last being 11am today, presumably to allow the cast to flee back to civilisation before midnight. It was apparently the biggest selling panto run in the near thirty years they've been doing it at the venue, so as an "art form" it's still holding up, in these parts at least.

[Levin]

It's coming! I've started noticing panto adverts in tube stations. Hackney Empire's Dick Whittington looks interesting

[Ray de Galles]

I'm very thankful that one of the bedrocks of my Xmas experience in recent years, the Palladium/Julian Clary panto, is still on in some form in 2020.

It's clearly going to be a slightly different, socially distanced experience (it seems more of a panto revue show than one of the traditional stories this year) but it features essential regular cast members Clary, Sir Nigel Havers, Dame Gary Wilmot and that vent act who's only good in panto. They are being joined by returning guest stars Elaine Paige, Diversity (who bored me a bit on their previous appearance but I'm hoping may come up with some Black Lives Matter material this year) and Charlie Stemp as well as, checks notes, Beverly Knight.

I'm taking the family next Tuesday which may prove to be the eve of London going in to Tier 3 (scuppering my other Xmas theatre plans which are a screening of 'Love Actually' with a live orchestral score and a concert performance of 'Les Mis' with Boe, Ball and Matt Lucas et al) but at least if it is we'll go out with a bang.

[Benjm]

I saw the Dick Whittington that is on at the National during its original run at the Lyric Hammersmith a couple of years ago. It was very entertaining and well worth a look, with no reason to suppose that it won't transfer successfully to the larger space.

[MsD]

So many Dicks, so little time.

[Jah Womble]

So many Dicks, so little time.

Babs would be proud of you.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I'm enjoying the pantomime which involves us sending a floundering, lying fuckwit in a terrible suit to Brussels in bid to oh hang on wrong thread.

[MsD]

Oh no, it isn’t!

[Toby Gymshorts]

Wahey!

[S. aureus]

Amongst many other things I'm going to miss going to an actual pantomime this year.