Pantomime at Christmas!

[stockportyears]

Anyone go to a panto when they were little? I never went to one with anyone famous, there used to be one at the old 'ABC' Theatre in Didsbury which the Manchester Poly's drama students used to put on, so my mum would take me to that as the tickets were cheap. I didn't mind, I had fun booing the villain and especially at the end, they used to throw Pic N Mix into the audience, which was all gathered in a little cluster near the stage. Maybe one of them went on to become a huge star and I never even realised?

Proper pantos at the Davenport in Stockport or the Palace in Manchester, they used to cost a bomb, never went to them. The star of the panto at the Davvy would always be the one to switch on the local Christmas lights. One year it was Stu 'I Could Crush a Grape' Francis, the really big news was when it was Lewis Collins just after the Professionals had finished: I think he was Baron Hardup or something. By the late 80s, though, it was all rubbishy Neighbours rejects, and I never knew who they were.

In Manchester in 1983, I vividly remember posters for the Palace panto starring the stars of Game for a Laugh, which had just finished on TV. I must admit, I was tempted to go, as I was going through my weird Sarah Kennedy phase, lol, but I'd just turned 14 and it would have been like social death to go to a panto! I soon got over it.

Anyway, I'm trying to persuade others at the radio station to take part in a short panto I've written for radio, called 'Discorella'. It's like Cindarella, only set in 1979, and about going to the disco rather than the ball. It's just totally daft stuff which amuses me, whether it'll amuse the people I want to take part in it for my Christmas show, who knows?!

[Marine Boy]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

I was never taken to a panto as a child. The only pantos I saw were those shown on TV. But in 1989, I was a stage hand at my local civic hall for "Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp". I had a ball and became a huge fan. The Genie of the Ring was John Partridge, (now EastEnders), 17 and straight out of drama school. And Simone Hyams; Cally from Grange Hill.

[Paulos]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

Never much as a child (apart from when I saw Benny from Crossroads as Buttons) but weirdly enough towards my latter teens (late 80's early 90's) me my Sister and my Mum started making it an annual event.
Plymouth Theatre Royal always put on a 1st class panto and we saw loads of the older performers some of who are not with us any more.
My favourite performers seen around then were:

Hinge and Bracket
Les Dawson (so glad I got to see him)
Bernard Bresslaw
And one year not long before he pass away Frankie Howerd was sat in the audience not far from me.

I'd love to start taking my kids now but don't think my youngest is ready yet.

I have also done my part for 3 or 4 local pantos in the musical dept helping out with drums, that was pretty fun but a lot of work doing it again and again each night.

[darren]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

Never much as a child (apart from when I saw Benny from Crossroads as Buttons) but weirdly enough towards my latter teens (late 80's early 90's) me my Sister and my Mum started making it an annual event.
Plymouth Theatre Royal always put on a 1st class panto and we saw loads of the older performers some of who are not with us any more.
My favourite performers seen around then were:

Hinge and Bracket
Les Dawson (so glad I got to see him)
Bernard Bresslaw
And one year not long before he pass away Frankie Howerd was sat in the audience not far from me.

I'd love to start taking my kids now but don't think my youngest is ready yet.

I have also done my part for 3 or 4 local pantos in the musical dept helping out with drums, that was pretty fun but a lot of work doing it again and again each night.

no harm in bringing your kids along mate.
i feel the younger the better as they are more curious about things.
when they get older they might not go and in school they might be made fun of so wont do it.

[zip55]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

Boooo Boooo .... he's behind you, he's behind you!

[Megawitch]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

When I was a kid I was taken to panto but it really confused me. Principal boy was obviously a woman in tights and high heels, and the Dame was obviously a man, I didn't get that! There were famous people in it but I didn't know who they were so their celebrity was wasted on me.
I didn't take my kids to the panto but they sometimes went with school or cubs etc.

I had a similar confusion with the Black and White Minstrels, what was the point? They were a pretty good choir without the hideous paint which did not look remotely like negroes, I just didn't get it.

[tulip]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

I went to the big ones in Glasgow with the brownies and my gran's tower.Don't remember much about them apart from Rikki Fulton being in one.

"Want a plate of yesterday's soup?Come back ramorra then!"


tulip

[George 1978]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

I was never taken to a panto as a child. The only pantos I saw were those shown on TV. But in 1989, I was a stage hand at my local civic hall for "Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp". I had a ball and became a huge fan. The Genie of the Ring was John Partridge, (now EastEnders), 17 and straight out of drama school. And Simone Hyams; Cally from Grange Hill.

I could imagine Simone Hyams playing the Principal Boy in panto considering how fine her legs looked in the 1988-1989 GH series.

Any Nottingham Playhouse regulars in the 1980s and 1990s would have seen Kenneth Alan Taylor (Cecil Newton in Corrie) in drag wearing sub-Dame Edna costumes with different ones every five minutes. I saw him at least twice, and once with Sally-Ann Matthews (Jenny Bradley from the same place) proving that she can sing just as much as act. Theatre Royal was where the big cookies appeared, and still do come to that...

[battyrat]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

I was taken to one to keep a much younger cousin company. I was at that age when all I wanted to do was hang out with my mates. Dad thought it would be a good idea for me to be there. So I was taken dumped then dad quickly disappeared. It was a works do by my dads company. Three hours of boredom and poor acting by a bunch of nobody's that could not act,sing, and simply were not funny. The play should of been condemned even before the place opened the door. I have the feeling the play was Mother Goose..........but even to this day I am not sure. I just hope the actors suffered more then the audience.

[zabadak]

Re: Pantomime at Christmas!

I went to two pantos when I was a man-cub: one starring Danny La Rue and the other Frankie Howerd!