Diehard panto fan Nick Ahad looks at some of this season's Yorkshire highlights

Time to talk about pantomimes? Oh yes it is.
Robin Hood at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield. (Credit: Ian Hodgson).Robin Hood at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield. (Credit: Ian Hodgson).
Robin Hood at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield. (Credit: Ian Hodgson).

Chances are, I’ve used that gag in the past, but if you can’t repeat jokes while writing about pantomimes then I’m not entirely sure when you can.

While it is fascinating that there is an artform peculiar to this little island (and places where English immigrants have settled – I’m told it’s very popular in Benidorm) and the roots of pantomime in commedia dell’arte are worth exploring, this isn’t really the place.

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I’m assuming what you really want to know is: what pantomimes are coming to our region?

Cinderella at York Theatre Royal. (Pamela Raith).Cinderella at York Theatre Royal. (Pamela Raith).
Cinderella at York Theatre Royal. (Pamela Raith).

There is, I’ll be honest, more than a passing feeling that I might be Bill Murray reporting from Punxsutawney when I write these words, but it is good to report that Bradford Alhambra’s panto is back.

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While there were some eyebrows raised in the industry at this year’s casting – TV personality Dr Ranj takes double billing with Billy Pearce – after a torrid two years for actors trained in stagecraft, the politics of the piece will soon be forgotten when Pearce shouts his customary greeting of ‘hiya kids’ from the proscenium arch.

The Bradford Alhambra pantomime has been annually produced by an out-of-town company called Qdos pretty much since records began.

Billy Pearce stars in Sleeping Beauty at the Alhambra, Bradford. (Credit: Nigel Hillier).Billy Pearce stars in Sleeping Beauty at the Alhambra, Bradford. (Credit: Nigel Hillier).
Billy Pearce stars in Sleeping Beauty at the Alhambra, Bradford. (Credit: Nigel Hillier).
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The company was bought out earlier this year by Crossroads Live, a ‘global entertainment’ organisation. The good news is that the buy-out doesn’t appear to have led to any change in quality, with the impressive – and clearly very expensive – technical wizardry for which the panto has become known still very much in evidence.

Over the past decade audiences have been treated to some impressive effects created by The Twins FX and the good news is that the team will be returning, this year providing an aerial ride through the skies of Bradford.

Ed Curtis returns as director. He says: “Alongside the laughs and mayhem provided by comedy legend Billy Pearce, the Alhambra theatre pantomime prides itself on wowing audiences with jaw-dropping moments of spectacle and magic. This year is no different, with bigger and better special effects than ever before.”

Given that previous years have featured 3D journeys into caves and giant animatronic dragons, expectations will be high.

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This year’s story, as ever, isn’t really the point, but it happens to be Sleeping Beauty. It really doesn’t matter – if you’re looking for all the tropes of pantomime you will find them here and you will find them played quite expertly by Billy who is so consummate a performer and so practiced at creating that magical connection between stage and audience that it feels odd to call him by his surname, as would be the case with pretty much any other actor.

He says: “After the awful time we’ve all had over the last eighteen months it’s made me appreciate even more how lucky I am to be able to be back performing on the beautiful Alhambra Theatre stage. I can’t wait to be back on that stage with an audience.”

Crossroads Live is also responsible for a couple of other pantomimes in the region. First there’s the annual show at Hull New Theatre, where Nigel Ellacot plays the dame alongside Coronation Street’s Faye Brookes and popular West Yorkshire actor Neil Hurst in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Then there’s York Grand Opera House for a pantomime that takes some explaining and comes with not a little controversy.

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The York venue will play host to Dick Turpin Rides Again and it will feature Berwick Kaler riding once again with his long term collaborators Martin Barrass, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard. It’s a line up that performed on the stage of York Theatre Royal for over a decade, with Kaler taking the role of the dame at that venue since the late 1970s.

Kaler announced his retirement in 2018, then in 2020 incoming chief executive of York Theatre Royal, Tom Bird, announced that a new pantomime with a new cast would be coming to the stage that December. It was, it has to be said, a bold move and one that caused considerable outrage. Kaler and team were pretty angry, so took their production across town to the York Grand Opera House. Then Covid happened and it didn’t happen.

This will be the first year, then, that York has a Berwick Kaler pantomime in the venue across town. It will be interesting to see if the Wagon Wheels are all consumed in the new place.

For its part York Theatre Royal will also be staging a pantomime, co-produced with Evolution, one of the country’s other big panto producing companies. With resident creative director Juliet Forster in the chair and a cast including CBeebies personality Andy Day alongside highly regarded actor Robin Simpson and Faye Campbell, Cinderella is this year’s offering from the theatre.

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While most audiences will simply enjoy one or the other, or indeed both, industry insiders will also be watching the behind the scenes fun and games.

In Huddersfield the Lawrence Batley Theatre also has a new team behind the scenes this year, co-producing for the first time with The Big Tiny, a company from the North East with the show directed by the company’s founder Ben Richards.

Robin Hood will also feature Mark Houston in the title role and Laura Corcoran, otherwise known as Frisky from the comedy duo Frisky and Mannish as Guy of Gisborne.

It is good to be writing about pantomimes again. Oh yes, it really is.

Rock ‘n’ Roll panto in Leeds and Hull

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If you’re looking for something a little more adult, Leeds City Varieties will cater with its increasingly popular Rock ‘n’ Roll panto. This year it’s Beauty and the Beast, although the story doesn’t really matter – it’s all about the music here.

Similarly in Hull, Middle Child celebrates a decade since its first pantomime with a rock ‘n’ roll flavoured show with a number of late night performances catering specifically for adults.

Rapunz’ull is the wittily titled show which features music, mess and an encouragement

to make as much noise as possible.

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