Are you going to the panto this year?

We went to the beautiful Grand Theatre in Blackpool last weekend to see Cinderella with the school outing at £8 each. We were on the front row which is unusual. It was absolutely great. Buttons (or equivalent) is always played by Steve Royle, a local entertainer and very funny man. We got water sprayed at us, never stopped laughing, one of the Dames picked on a man in our party which cause great hilarity and later fell off a chair on stage and lost his wig - a very thin bald man was revealed which lost the magic for a moment! The funniest happened when one of the Dames stopped the action to announce that out of 1000 people laughing in the audience, there was one who wasn't who was our friend's daughter next to us (who was shrunk down in her chair worried about just this eventuality as she is so shy). They put the spotlight on her and made her stand up and shout where the ghost was! She was fine but mortified. I was still laughing days later, brilliant!

I loved Paddington 2, aquafish, and I think DH laughed more than anyone else in the cinema. We did have a DGS with us, and he seemed to like it too.

Not boasting as this nothing to do with me at all but Dh wrote and directed the village panto this year. It was his take on Cinderella. Although I sometimes get fed up that we are tied to home for the six week rehearsal period it is fascinating to watch the youngsters who make up the majority of the cast grow in confidence and ability each year. Over five performances over 500 people attended, having lots of children means lots of grans, aunties etc. Charge is £5 for concessions, £7 otherwise. Having paid expenses, hiring the Hall, costumes etc. there is a profit which subsidises other less well attended plays thoughout the year. DH loves it so much, he is like a dog with two tails!

DD & I took DGD (4) to her first panto this year - Cinderella, a local show in the town where they live - and I thought that I'd covered all the bases beforehand by telling DGD the 'funny' news that the Ugly Sisters were played by men dressed up... However, I'd forgotten the other bit - so when Prince Charming and Dandini strode into the stage, a piercing voice from my lap exclaimed, 'But they're two ladies..!!'
She soon recovered, and joined in the cries of, 'Look behind you!' 'Oh yes you did.!' etc with gusto - and she wants to go again next year, so I'd call that a success..!!

When I was little I was a dancer in a pantomime. The first night the dame's knickers fell down. Well I was beside myself with giggling. It happened every night at the same time yet I still believed it was accidental. The innocence of youth. I loved that I got to wear stage make-up too.

I'm not a big Panto fan but we take our Rainbows to a panto every year......local church society, tickets £5.00. This year it's 'Mother Goose', not on until Feb Half Term so it's something for them to look forward to. The productions are usually very good and you can tell everyone on stage is enjoying themselves. at the end of the show all the principals stand at the exits and speak to the kids as they are leaving, kids think it's brilliant.

My d gd and I wanted to go and see American in Paris but couldn’t get tickets.
Last year we saw the red shoes ballet it was lovely.

I'm not going to a panto but bought tickets ages ago to see Miracle on 34th Street at our local theatre (SW Surrey) which doubles as a cinema. You can pre-buy drinks and get a ticket which enables you to avoid the crush at intermission. They also sell locally made ice-cream, in tubs, which is a real treat. It's a 3 minute walk from home so I'm not having to drive. Last night it was a sold out concert by ABBA Gold for which they could have sold quadruple the amount of tickets. No panto this year but might go if Chichester has one. 'Oh no you wont'...'Oh yes I will'...lol.

We had a ghastly afternoon last year at Reading Panto, which was hijacked by gay men on some sort of outing, out singing and out shouting the kids and franky, 'we'd like a biggun over here' and 'everyone loves a fairy' can grate after a couple of hours..............

Panto has always been a little saucy but is verging on the downright smutty now...........just as some kids films are. I much prefer a decent musical with the kids, especially now I look so much like widow Twanky.

Went to see DGD dancing in Jack and the Beanstalk - great fun and I got quite hoarse shouting it’s behind you and booing the baddie. Happy memories as the first panto I danced in was Jack and the Banstalk .... um .... 54 years ago .....

Fantastic! Why ever not?! It wasnt a panto but my friend & I loved Paddington2, such innocent child like fun for over 60s! I will never grow up!

We are going to see Aladin tomorrow night with all the grandchildren,at the Little theatre in Southport, we went here many years ago when son and daughter were kids, but have to say not been to a panto for years.

I've noticed it seems to be the big theatres that appear to be going too far. That's such a shame when you think of the ticket prices.

Like HildajennaJ we're not doing a panto this year as in the last two years we found the inuendos had become very unpleasant. I'm talking about large theatre productioms in Liverpool last year and Manchester the previous year. This year it's a trip to the theatre to watch a children's play at the Storyhouse in Chester.

Pantos have traditionally had jokes to entertain the parents as well as the fun for children, but they were mostly political comment or making fun of TV shows/adverts. When they turned smutty, the humour had sunk to a level we didn't as a family enjoy.

BBbevan I hold my hand up and confess that I end up doing really belly laughs and it makes me realise how rare it is to laugh so heartily!

hilda innuendo is part of the panto tradition going back hundreds of years, so it will always be a part of the show. Was the innuendo in Alladin worse than usual?

lemongrove yes, that's right. Iain Lauchlan is the writer and director as well as the dame, but I read an interview last year that said the script starts with just a bare outline and he and his idiot sidekick Craig Hollingsworth pad it out because they know each other so well. He's on his third sidekick because traditionally the role is played by a younger man and this year is the current sidekick's 6th year. Craig is the best IMHO, and his background as a children's entertainer shines through. BTW Iain Lauchlan has a BAFTA for the Tweenies which he wrote and produced for the BBC. The photo shows Iain getting his very hairy legs waxed by Craig and the other Ugly Sister!

I'm on a waiting list for free tickets from an organisation we're members of, for me and the three eldest DGS, so it's in the lap of the gods. I'm not a huge fan, but love to see the children enjoying the show. One did stand out for me - the Krankies and Christopher Biggins in Robinson Crusoe at the beautiful Bradford Alhambra many years ago. Biggins turned up in different outfits in each scene according to his changing fortunes, with an appropriate carrier bag, from Woolworths to Harrods, and the sets were exceptional. It was great fun.

Wilma that sounds great, and you get to know all the cast well over the years.

We're booked to see Sleeping Beauty in between Christmas and New Year. It's pretty much the same cast as last year's Snow White and if it's half as good as that, it will be fantastic! It was GD's first time at a panto last year and she loved it, so is very excited this year! The cost of the seats is expensive but we've paid for DS, DIL and 2 grandchildren, plus booked a restaurant for a meal after, and that's our Christmas gift to them this year.

We will never go to the Pantomime again after last year's Aladdin in Glasgow. The theatre was full of schoolchildren, but the show was not child friendly. It was full of innuendo. Our DGC did not understand it and we were embarrassed to be there. They asked to go, so we left before the interval. My DD complained to the theatre via email, but got no reply. We are pretty broad minded, but quite honestly, it was cringe worthy.

Yes , on Boxing Day. It is a new tradition since DGDs were old enough to go. This year it is Aladdin.
Best one we ever went to was in Llandudno with Jimmy Osmond (!) My DD ( aged 50) nearly fell of her seat laughing .

I love it as many of you already know! It’s also many children’s first experience of theatre (apart from Peppa etc!) We’ve just finished a very successful 5 night run of Robin Hood but we keep our ticket prices at £6 and £4 so a family of 4 can have a night out for £20. It is a community event after all. I’ve taken dgc to professional panto every year since they were 4 (now 11) and they’re in there cheering with the best! A family ticket costs around £130 but it’s our annual treat with them. Hope to continue the tradition for many more years once two smaller dgs are old enough.

No, but really looking forward to taking Dgcs when they're older - still only 1.5 and 2.8.
I have lovely memories of being taken to the panto when we were small - I think a granny paid for the tickets since my folks were pretty much permanently hard up.

Best one more recently was in West End, with Lenny Henry in a major role, IIRC - it was hilarious. We had a young Australian friend of a dd staying - she'd never seen a panto and was asking beforehand whether it was a comedy! How to explain panto to someone who's never seen one....?? She soon found out, and loved it!

I remember going to see Tom O’Connor (is he still alive?) in Panto at the Floral Hall in Southport when my children were small. It had snowed deeply and only a few intrepid idiots had made it to the production. He made the best of it quipping ‘did you all come on the same bus?’ and came down into the audience and brought us all into the front seats. Every child present ( about 10 of them) were invited up on stage and he made it very memorable.

NonnaW £77.50 Good grief!

NanKate our tickets cost £22.50 and I thought that was expensive.

The cost of the ticket is my one gripe and I mentioned this in a little review I wrote, but the truth is that going to the theatre is a a treat for me and not something I can afford to do on a regular basis. I am sure I'm not alone in feeling this way. I don't think it's a rip off, just a sign of the times and I'm grateful we still have a local theatre because the bigger the theatre, the more the tickets cost.

At the weekend we went to see Queen with Adam Lambert at the NIA in Birmingham. This was a complete one off for us because the tickets were £75 each and that was the cheapest tickets. There was a booking fee on top and car parking was £7. The trip was our Christmas present and we agreed not to buy anything else for each other. The reason we went was we're both Queen fans, but my DH is the real fan and given that Brian May is now 70, I doubt we'll ever get the chance to see the band again (he's still got it btw, Roger Taylor too). Adam Lambert is someone we never thought we'd see in concert, so it was a bonus to see such a talented performer.

It's slightly off topic, but another example of how expensive live entertainment is these days.

lemongrove the Belgrade theatre's panto is quite well known and it doesn't have a big name star like some of the larger places. I think it's a real tradition for a lot of the audience because it's the same production team and central cast most years. Iain Lauchlan, the current director and dame has been involved for over 20 years. We're also lucky to have quite a few successful amateur productions and the prices are much more family friendly.