Month: December 2022

A capacity audience of local enthusiasts packed the Crucible Main House for the return of Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which celebrates the rise, fall and rise again of a local icon, the Park Hill flats, which had been built in the late ’50s to replace outmoded and decaying council slums in the heart of… Continue reading Standing at the Sky’s Edge

Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872) is considered the father of Polish national opera. Jawnuta, conducted by Rafał Kłoczko, gets a rare showing by Poznan Opera. The music is Slavic. The opening song asks, “where have all the gypsies gone?” It’s a question which instantly recalls Pete Seeger’s song, “Where have all the flowers gone?” Stach (Piotr Kalina),… Continue reading Jawnuta

Claus the Musical is not a conventional Christmas potboiler. It does not presume the young target audience has a limited attention span and depends more upon imagination than slick special effects to tell the story. L Frank Baum’s best-known story—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz—successfully shifted the fairy tale formula from Europe to the American Heartland.… Continue reading Claus the Musical

Children’s creativity is said to be at the heart of Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company’s productions and that is very apparent in its fun and inventive Christmas offering Pinocchio. It’s all very homespun with plenty of ideas for kids to copy: wooden spoon puppets, teaspoon arms, toilet plunger noses and cushion cover manes the genesis… Continue reading Pinocchio

It’s great to see this company back at Dance City performing the sizzlingly energetic and touching story of Tin Man, a family show for 7+, though there were plenty of younger children in the audience. It’s a retelling of the well-known story about the Tin Man of Wizard of Oz fame, told through his daily life and his… Continue reading Tin Man

It’s clear in the first few minutes that this is a panto that is going for spectacle, as with a flash of pyrotechnics and some complex lighting effects (lighting designer Richard G Jones), Tink (Samara Casteallo) the fairy flies down onto the stage to introduce the story with the help of an animated film sequence… Continue reading The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan

Bury Met’s first ever in-house panto with The Big Tiny might be tiny in scale, with a cast of just seven on a small stage used mostly for music gigs, stand-up comedy and small-scale kids’ shows, but it isn’t tiny on ambition. The script by Ben Richards, who also directs, is stronger on story than… Continue reading Dick Whittington

A Little Wolf panto is something to savour. Ever since the company took over staging the Derby LIVE annual extravaganza, it has got better and better, culminating in the best dame accolade for Morgan Brind’s portrayal of Nurse Nancy Nightley in the 2021 production of Sleeping Beauty. For 2022, Little Wolf has chosen to present… Continue reading Aladdin

First performed as a pantomime in 1804, Cinderella is still the most commonly produced title with this year seeing 49 versions take to stages up and down the country. The rags to riches tale of Prince’s, Balls and Ugly Sisters is a pretty standard affair at most theatres, but the Oxford Playhouse is leading the… Continue reading Cinderella

It is common for pantos to use songs with which the audience is already familiar to ensure quick recognition. Eight-Freestyle, however, goes a step further concentrating entirely on songs from the 1980s so their panto becomes very much a tribute to the decade that good taste forgot. Robin Hood: The 80’s Panto is a very… Continue reading Robin Hood: The 80’s Panto