panto

Clive Rowe is astonishing: Hackney Empire's Jack and the Beanstalk reviewed

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Jack and the Beanstalk is a big, sprawling family show that opens with a baffling gesture. A booming voiceover announces…

How real is the performing arts exodus?

20 March 2021 9:00 am

Richard Bratby on the post-Covid exodus of talent from the performing arts

Deserves to be a permanent winter fixture: Potted Panto at the Garrick reviewed

19 December 2020 9:00 am

Potted Panto is a 70-minute parody presented by two burlesque comedians. Jeff is a tall, playful bungler and his colleague,…

Buttercup the cow was so convincing I felt quite moved: Jack and the Beanstalk reviewed

12 December 2020 9:00 am

This pantomime was filmed by ‘legendary Blue Peter presenter’ Peter Duncan in his back garden over the summer. It was…

A silly, bouncy delight: Glyndebourne's In the Market for Love reviewed

17 October 2020 9:00 am

Offenbach at Glyndebourne! Short of Die Soldaten with a picnic break or a period-instrument revival of Jerry Springer: The Opera,…

I was born to be a pantomime Dame (oh yes I was!)

21 December 2019 9:00 am

‘Flamenco, lambada/ But hip hop is harder/ We moonwalk the foxtrot/ Then polka the salsa…’ I’m sure you know those…

Full of fascinating data and excellent comedy: Messiah at Stratford Circus reviewed

21 December 2019 9:00 am

I’ve joined the Black Panthers. At least I think I have. I took part in an induction ceremony at the…

All the world’s a stage: this election has echoes of Shakespeare and Dickens

14 December 2019 9:00 am

The Christmas election has unfolded like a series of mini-dramas from panto, Dickens and other popular classics. Boris has come…

‘You either are panto, or you aren’t’: Christopher Biggins on his favourite time of year

7 December 2019 9:00 am

Christopher Biggins has managed to bag some of the nation’s favourite TV characters over the years: Lukewarm in Porridge and…

Panto should be about escapism, not saving the planet

30 November 2019 9:00 am

If you were hoping to escape the bilge that’s been pumped out by supposedly neutral organs of the state during…

Carl Mullaney as a charismatic Dame in Lyric Hammersmith's Dick Whittington. [Photo: Tristram Kenton]

Lyric Theatre’s Dick Whittington is the opposite of festive garbage

8 December 2018 9:00 am

One of the biggest stars of the 1970s was the professional lard-bucket Mick McManus, who plied his trade as an…

Bring on the dancing-girls: Follies at the Oliver

Age concern

16 September 2017 9:00 am

Stephen Sondheim’s Follies takes a huge leap into the past. It’s 1971 and we meet two middle-aged couples who knew…