It's been another creative year in Pantoland, with the genre evolving faster than ever.
As a living newspaper of the year, 2024 saw plenty of references to Brat Summer, "skibidi rizz", sewage pollution, Wicked, the Oasis reunion, TV’s Gladiators, Raygun at the Paris Olympics and musical numbers including Sabrina Carpenter’s "Espresso", Chappell Roan’s "HOT TO GO!" and "Good Luck, Babe!", Beyoncé’s "Texas Hold ‘Em", Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s "Die With a Smile", not forgetting a large swell of '90s nostalgia, a good peppering of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s "Murder on the Dancefloor" and plenty of Cher.
Here are five observations from this season:
1) Aladdin is Back!
This year saw an increase in the number of Aladdins staged as creatives find ways to solve many of the title’s issues. From the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham that whisked audiences off to Las Vegas to Norwich Theatre Royal's pie shop setting, the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre's enchanted cave set in the middle aisle of Lidl and the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmund's Abanazer Hotel, it looks as though 2025's season will see more productions of the title staged as confidence grows.
2) What's in a Name?
For many of this year's Aladdins, one of the biggest changes in addition to location has been in characters’ names.
The Beck Theatre, Hayes welcomed Soapy Simon in place of Wishee Washee, the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre introduced Widow Twerkey, the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds presented Sally Swankey and the Wycombe Swan Theatre, High Wycombe said hello to Widow Lankey, mother to 6’ 4” Vernon Kay's Vernon Lankey.
Many of these names are nods to the historic Widow Twankey, but in the case of Kay’s character, his name also acknowledges a growing trend of productions using a performer’s name as their character’s, further strengthening the relationship between role and performer. In Hayes, Mama G appeared as Aladdin’s mother Mama G and Newcastle's The Little Mermaid featured regular father and son duo Danny Adams and Clive Webb as Danny Crabsticks and Clive the Cod.
By blending a performer’s name with their character’s, an additional layer of familiarity and continuity is created akin to the resident Dame announcing that her name is X “this year!” But more and more productions are also permitting their casts to refer to each other by their actual names, as greatly popularised by the regular team at the London Palladium, thus exposing the frame of performance completely.
3) What's love got to do with it?
Romance no longer seems to be such a driving force in many a pantomime, with narrative quest and friendship much more dominant. Productions of Jack and the Beanstalk, such as Nottingham Playhouse's, see the cow, now a walking, talking principal character, kidnapped rather than the Princess.
In addition, an increasing number of venues are dispensing with the traditional walkdown wedding or are opting to establish a developed relationship from the off. A good example of this is the City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds’s Jack and the Beanstalk which saw Jack and Jill planning their wedding and about to be married at the opening of the show. Marriage is no longer seen as the ultimate goal for many young people today, or an expectation of society, and the historic class narrative keeping lovers apart has long disappeared.
With that, so too have meddling parents comprising Barons, Emperors and Kings. Perhaps this also reflects the genre coming to terms with Britain's constitutional monarchy, particularly during the ongoing cost of living crisis. Derby Arena's Cinderella featured a protest against the inherited wealth and power of Prince Charming, and Oxford Playhouse's Princess Aurora the Awesome gave up the throne completely.
Might this be why Beauty and the Beast is growing in popularity with its narrative of a Prince taught a lesson for his actions and lessoned by an inspirational Principal Girl who doesn’t judge a book by its cover and isn’t seeking nobility or fame?
4) Plot points? What points?
In some cases, innovation has led to anticipated and expected key components of fairytale plots being dispensed with altogether.
The cast of Oxford Playhouse's Sleeping Beauty was devoid of a Prince and saw Princess Aurora the Awesome sleep for 1,000 years before simply waking up, unkissed, as part of a time-travelling narrative. This allowed new plot points to form and also dealt with the challenge of consent.
The Theatre Chipping Norton's Viking-inspired Jack and the Beanstalk was bereft of a cow sale for magic beans; in its place, the bovine beauty ate some nearby beans and pooped them out, which ultimately introduced the beanstalk. Cinderella at the Alban Arena, St Albans saw Buttons get the girl, whilst Greenwich Theatre’s Dick Whittington and his Cat also embraced a time-travelling narrative to help Dick Whittington clear his name and see who set him up, rather than travel abroad as is usually customary.
In recent years, Snow Whites have introduced new characters in place of the Seven Dwarfs, such as The Sound of Music von Trapp inspired De’Wharff family at the Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, but will we ever see an Aladdin without a genie or lamp?
5) Hair we go...
Facial hair is here to stay. Historically, the male Principal Boy would never have had stubble, a beard or moustache due to his 'boy' status, but now characters from Prince Charming to Peter Pan enjoy a heightened sense of masculinity, perhaps due to an increased sense of quest in many narratives, but also reflecting contemporary facial hair trends.
Of course, in some cases, an individual’s facial hair is part of their ‘look’ or celebrity, and in others, they may require such stubble for another job either side of the pantomime season. The loss of ‘youth’ via facial hair is also evident in Comics with full beards and 2024 has also seen the highest count of bearded Dames as the role evolves further in the 21st century and draws new inspiration.
Rapunzel as a title continues to be embraced in both the commercial and in-house sectors and it certainly seems to be the case that more and more characters are wearing wigs, in particular foam wigs, in a range of extreme and outlandish shapes, sizes and colours.
2025....
Looking ahead, what might 2025 bring more of? Keep an eye out for an increase in queer narratives, non-binary characters, narratives addressing toxic masculinity, female Sisters, female Dames, disability representation, printed cloths and digital scenery.