Pantos and other Christmas shows
As always—and as everywhere else in the UK!—pantos and Christmas shows proved enormously popular this Christmas and New Year season. We reviewed seven pantos and five Christmas shows in the NE but in addition to these there were, to the best of our knowledge twelve other pantos (plus two touring) and eight Christmas shows (plus two tours). That’s 21 pantos and 15 Christmas shows across the region, but these figures do not take into account that one of the touring pantos played in 7 different venues and the other in 26.
And those are the ones we know of. There are bound to be others that we missed.
Not mentioned here, of course, are the numerous pantos put on by amateur companies, and they will continue for another month.
Many broke box office records, such was the demand. The Customs House in South Shields, for example, has just announced an extra morning show this week, making a total of 80 performances.
Although there are frequent comments that panto is out of date and not really suitable for modern children, it seems that its appeal is not so much undiminished in the NE but in fact is growing.