Earlier this month, newspapers across the UK reported that panto season had come early with the opening of Disney's Aladdin in the West End. Whilst the Christmas season may be some way off, it is fascinating to note just how engrained pantomime is on our minds throughout the year and how it acts as a reference point for some many aspects of culture.
Of course, panto's summer season is just around the corner with Haven holiday parks and the MV Bretagne choosing pantomime to entertain their families as they take time off work to relax and unwind. Seaside holiday parks seem a long way off the West End, but pantomime's genre conventions are embraced in a variety of ways which gives the genre great diversity and the opportunity to 'speak' to its local community.
Although the West End's current Aladdin isn't a pantomime, London's Theatreland will get its first pantomime in almost thirty years come December when Qdos Entertainment presents Cinderella at the Palladium. Since its announcement, all eyes have been on who will be cast and we now know that Paul O'Grady (Wicked Stepmother), Paul Zerdin (Buttons) Lee Mead (Prince Charming), Julian Clary (Dandini), Nigel Havers (Lord Chamberlain) and Count Arthur Strong (Baron Hardup) will lead the line up.
Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother are still to be announced and, with a such a male-heavy cast, it will be interesting to see, what with O'Grady cross-dressed as the Wicked Stepmother, whether Qdos plumps for female Ugly Sisters. Of course, the Palladium is no stranger to such interpretations of usually cross-dressed roles; both Dora Bryan and Mollie Sugden played Dame at the venue and, with Clary reprising his glamorous Aide-de-Campe role, such casting might strengthen the production, enabling the Uglies to provide more comic relief whilst O'Grady and Clary share the glamorous costumes and more adult patter.
However, with the Palladium the centre of this year's festive season, the Birmingham Hippodrome seems to have been relegated and the revelation of its cast evokes shades of pantos of yesteryear. John Barrowman will return to the venue, having played the Hippodrome's 2007 and 2008 seasons, and is re-united with his Glasgow SECC Clyde Auditorium pals the Krankies to headline Dick Whittington along with Steve McFadden as King Rat. Fairy Bowbells has yet to be announced, but here's hoping it'll be a panto debut as has become a somewhat tradition for the Hippodrome, where regulars Andrew Ryan and Matt Slack have become quasi-resident Dame and Comic.
Back in 2013, Gok Wan made his pantomime debut at the Hippodrome and has since gone on to perform in Southampton and Plymouth. This year, he's the Spirit of the Ocean with Brian Conley in Southend's Robinson Crusoe and the Caribbean Pirates, continuing a contemporary casting practice in the commercial sector of openly gay celebrities playing male Immortal.
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean led to a Robinson Crusoe revival and indeed productions of Dick Whittington also saw Caribbean pirates joining the narrative. Thirteen years on since The Curse of the Black Pearl, 2016 sees three productions of rarely staged pantomime Sinbad the Sailor at the Thwaites Empire, Blackburn, New Wolsey, Ipswich and Theatre Royal Stratford East. Pirate narratives have never been so popular and, with three productions this year, the ripple effect seems to suggest more may come in the future as has been seen recently with titles such as Red Riding Hood.
Of course, the most famous of pirate narratives is Peter Pan and, with female Principal Boys a thing of the past, eternally youthful pop stars seem to have taken their place. Jon Lee joins the cast of Bradford's Peter Pan in the title role alongside Charlie Hardwick as the Magical Mermaid and, in Worthing, Lloyd Daniel takes on the part alongside Amelia Lily as Tiger Lily and Richard 'Dick' McCourt as Smee. Completing a trio of popstar Pans, Marcus Collins will take to the stage as the boy who never grew up at the Thameside Theatre, Grays.
In Stevenage, Aiden O'Neill will play the panto's comic, with Paul Laidlaw returning as his mum Mrs Smee. Peter Pan has undergone the greatest transformation of any pantomime narrative and, now that a Dame is part and parcel of the show's presentation, some productions are dispensing with the Comic in having a Mrs Smee alone. This is certainly the case in Evolution Productions' rendering of the narrative, where in Crawley Michael J Batchelor takes up the role alongside Emma Barton's Tinkerbell, Hilary O'Neill's Mrs Darling and Mermaid and Shaun Williamson's evil Captain Hook.
Many performers revel playing Villain and, after his inaugural panto season in Birmingham, Marti Pellow revives his Abanazar in Glasgow, whilst Sid Sloane, Dooby Duck and Malcolm Lord join the cast of the Lyceum Theatre, Crewe's Aladdin.
In Chesterfield, Lee Brennan and Liz McClamon headline at the Pomegranate, whilst Aylesbury's Waterside Theatre welcomes Michelle Collins as the Slave of the Ring, Andy Collins as Wishee Washee, La Voix as Widow Twankey and Jasmine Walia as the Princess.
It's all change in York, where the Grand Opera House welcomes new production company Three Bears Productions headed by Chris Moreno to produce this year's panto starring Suzanne Shaw, Debbie McGee, Carl Tracey, Frazer Hines and Steve Wickenden.
This year sees FFE panto mastermind Eric Potts wave goodbye to Sarah the Cook and hello to Widow Twankey as he joins the cast of the Bristol Hippodrome's production, which also includes Sherrie Hewson, John Thomson and Ben Adams.
Rounding off the casting news for male led narratives, George Sampson is set to play Jack at the Sands Centre, Carlisle, Nigel Ellacott takes his Dame Trot to the Royal and Derngate, Northampton and Keith Chegwin and Roxanne Pallett star in Bolton's Dick Whittington.
Over the past couple of years, Chris Jarvis has really lifted Richmond's pantomime offering and this year he's back with another piece of solid casting from First Family Entertainment. Last time Sleeping Beauty was presented at the theatre, Anita Dobson gave her glorious Carabosse and this year Maureen Lipman will star as the Wicked Fairy bringing her own very particular take on the role.
In Malvern, Gillian Wright takes up the Villain's reigns alongside Chris Pizzey, Amy Thompson and Quinn Patrick, whilst in Sunderland, Faye Tozer, Andrew Agnew and Bobby Crush star in the tale of a Princess set to sleep for a century.
The Anvil, Basingstoke welcomes Sue Holderness and Katrina Bryan to its cast of Sleeping Beauty, whilst in Basildon, regulars to the Towngate will be pleased to hear Simon Fielding and Sophie Ladds are back for their tenth year at the Essex venue.
Having first appeared in panto back in 2012, Cheryl Fergison stars in the Lighthouse, Kettering's 2016 panto Beauty and the Beast, with Kevin James and Jimmy Burton-Iles back at the Harlow Playhouse as Comic and Dame and Sam Attwater playing Prince at the Redditch Palace.
It's all change for Bristol Hippodrome, which loses its regular Comic Andy Ford to Woking's New Victoria Theatre, where he'll star alongside Warwick Davis in Snow White. In Sheffield, Wendi Peters and Phil Gallagher aka Mister Maker join regular Dame Damian Williams with Lynne McGranger announced as Southport's Wicked Queen.
No stranger to the role of Wicked Queen herself, this year Linda Lusardi takes up the wand of the Fairy Godmother at the Three Crowns Theatre, Hull in Cinderella whilst the New Theatre undergoes renovation. In Derby, Mrs Brown's Boys' Eilish O'Carroll will be making magic alongside Richard Blackwood's Buttons and Lloyd Warbey's Dandini with Matt Lapinskas, Ian Marr and Steven Kynman announced as the stars of the Kings Lynn Corn Exchange's production.
In Lincoln, the Theatre Royal will see Kerry Katona headline the cast at Fairy Godmother with Luke Roberts announced as Buttons at Harpenden Halls, Chesney Hawkes as Prince Charming in Redhill and Ray Quinn wooing Cinderella at the Echo Arena, Liverpool.
Cross dressed capers are confirmed in Camberley where the Wugly Sisters will take up their Christmas residency and in a change to his usual appearance, Theatre Severn resident Dame Brad Fitt will leave his frocks behind for a season as Buttons.
Although no casting has yet been released, a number of theatres have confirmed their titles for the season ahead. Hertford Theatre will present Little Red Riding Hood, Glasgow's Tron Theatre will stage The Snaw Queen and the UK's only full time LGBT theatre Above The Stag is set to present Beauty on the Piste. Year after year there appears to be an increase in LGBT pantomimes and Bournemouth will welcome its first in 2016 with Sleeping Beauty and that Little Prick at the Shelley Theatre.
With only a few theatres left to announce their casting, the summer season sees the start of press launches galore. This month's blog features our first press launch pic courtesy of St Helens Theatre Royal, where TOWIE's Amy Childs and Harry Derbridge lead the cast in Aladdin. There'll be plenty more press launch photographs in our next blog, but, before then, make sure you save a very important date in your diaries: Panto Day 2016 will take place on Friday 16 December with this year's theme "Over to You!" How will you celebrate? Get those thinking caps on...