Pantomime - anyone still attend these?

DD1 and her family saw Pinocchio at Newcastle Theatre Royal (Joe McEldery). Everyone loved it - they’d had the tickets for best part of a year and have just booked for 2024. Panto seems to be going strong in this neck of the woods.

I remember seeing Cliff Richard as the Principal Boy, at the Palladium (?)I think in the 60s or 70s.

Love a panto!
This year family thought it would be fun to go to an adult over 18s one…… never again though. Not for me. 😳

My son and I took 3 DGC to our local theatre, a 10 minute walk away, yesterday. We saw a wonderful pantomime at a very affordable ticket price. They are really good, every Christmas. The Prince was a man and the Princess was an attractive young lady. All the audience had a lovely time and joined in, enthusiastically.

We have a local amateur company who do a fantastic panto. And it's very traditional, dame is always a man, principal boy is a girl and there is sometimes a talking animal. It's also fantastic value. 4 of us- 2 adults and 2 children go for the same price as a single ticket at Newcastle Theatre Royal.
They also usually have a communal sing-along and some slap stick. Last year there was a skit on the Twelve Days of Christmas. Can't remember it all but 12 was 12 toilet rolls, which had all the kids laughing. We're going in January.

Do we love a panto? Oh yes we do! Did you read the report that the genre of Pantomime is being considered for 'cultural heritage' status? Oh yes it is.

7 of us , 5 adults and two children went last Saturday. Cinderella at Milton Keynes. Brian Conley was Buttons. The prince was a man. Princess a woman but the ugly sisters were men.
Brilliant production, much enjoyed by all.

Our youngest daughter and son in law took their two young children to see Peter Pan at Stockport theatre the other afternoon and they all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Oh yes we do ! Went with son and family to see Lesley Joseph in Jack and the Beanstalk - excellent, especially the 3D effects at the end - loved it !😻

We used to take our daughter, she now takes me. We are going to see Mother Goose this season.

My lot are at the pantomime today. Haven’t heard how they got on; the youngest might be a little bit too young for it so I told them to take lots of sweets.We used to take our eldest grandson to the pantomime each year and used to practice our ‘behind you’s’ for ages before we went to the performance. I miss our village pantomimes and still remember them with such fondness, especially the camel whose eye kept dropping out. It was the highlight of our village calendar but sadly no one seems to have the time to do one these days.

Our whole family go to a panto every year and it's become the highlight of our Christmas. As we leave the theatre we book for the next year! It makes no difference what the pantomime is, it's just the whole family being together, having fun and seeing the little ones really getting into the spirit of it all. It's so good to see hundreds of families, all in the same place, all having a good time.

I decided when I was about six that I didn’t like pantomimes. I didn’t like the way they messed up the stories. I liked plays, I liked ballets, but not pantomimes. I’ve never given then a chance since. My children were happy with the theatre we did take them to, which didn’t include pantomimes.

Yes

My husband and I went to the Harrogate theatre to see Dick Whittington while we were there for the Country Living Christmas Fair. We went to the evening performance, the stalls were packed with Brownies and Guides. Behind us were visitors from Australia who had never seen panto before.
It was an absolute hoot! Enjoyed by all.

We went to an amateur production of Aladdin just before Christmas. It was great fun, made all the more amusing by the wholehearted participation of the children in the audience.
The Dame was a man and the principal boy was played by a girl and there was the obligatory animal in it, too. 😁

We used to take our children to the pantso when they were young, they loved them. I particularly remember Peter Pan "Dirty Den" played Captain Hook. Richmond Theatre was only a couple of miles away and that's where they were staged. I took my granddaughter to see The Gruffalo when she was about 3 which was also staged. Our kids eventually out grew oit of pantomimes "oh yes they did" and we later took them to a couple of West End productions when they were a bit older such as Billy Elliott and Saturday Night Fever.

I loathe pantos, and was delighted when my sons were old enough for a different type of show at Christmas.

But I’ll be going to our local one this year, as one of my daughters-in-law is the principal boy.

I took my nieces to see Cinderella at the Palladium back in the mid eighties. Dame Anna Neagle was the Fairy Godmother, Paul Nicholas as the Prince and small white ponies for the. carriage. We all loved it.

Several years ago we saw Jimmy Osmond in Cinderella, in Llandudno. We, my Gds, son ,daughter and their spouses have never laughed so much. It was just magical and so very funny.

Thoroughly enjoy panto.

My family (12 of us) went to see Cinderella at our local theatre. Very traditional, ugly sisters - men and prince was a girl. It was brilliant, it was the first time for my 3 year old granddaughter, I thought she may be too young but she was entranced by the whole thing.
When they asked for children to go onto the stage her hand shot up and she was picked, maybe as she was dressed as Cinderella.
We were shocked but she was so confident, we were all in tears and so was a lot of the audience.
Wonderful memories.

Never liked them (and haven't bothered to analyse) but I think they are a great tradition.

It gives children the opportunity to be anarchic, and part of the whole show.

I took my son when he was around 6 or 7, determined not to spoil things by letting on that I didn't like panto. Ed Stewart ("Stewpot") was part of the show and my son was invited backstage to meet him.

Unfortunately, my son decided to be a smart arse - I'd told him to say "hello Stewpot", instead he said, "hello Stupid" and giggled at his own 'wit'. Stewpot was very kind and told me not to worry because it happened frequently and he didn't mind, and that he'd probably have reacted similarly!

That was the end of pantomime for us.

We all saw the pantomime of Alladin this year. We love it and cheered and booed with gusto. It is a very British tradition, I think.