Dawn in panto? Oh, yes she is!
Comedy star joins the Palladium’s Crazy Gang
Dawn French is to make her pantomime debut as the wicked Queen at this year’s London Palladium spectacular, Snow white. Oh, yes she is! ‘She’ll be funny, with a twinkle in her eye,’ director Michael harrison told me, when he confirmed the casting coup.
‘I’ve been trying to coax Dawn for a long time,’ he added.
he said it was ‘weird’ timing that he happened to be meeting the comedy superstar the day after his production of Dick whittington won a trophy for best entertainment at the Olivier awards.
‘The Olivier has turned people’s heads,’ he joked, before stressing that Ms French was not joining the acclaimed troupe he fondly calls the crazy Gang — in honour of the famous comic ensemble which made the nation laugh in the pre and post-war eras, and which is now led by Julian clary, ventriloquist Paul Zerdin and actors nigel havers and Gary wilmot — just because it had won the coveted award.
Last christmas, the ‘gang’ played the whittington show at the Palladium, with elaine Paige as the baddie and charlie Stemp as the heartthrob. It was hilarious.
cinderella, in 2016, with Julian clary and amanda holden, revived the tradition of christmas foolery at the argyll Street theatre.
French has had an interest in — and knowledge of — pantomime since she studied at the royal central School of Speech and Drama in the late Seventies, where she met her future comedy collaborator, Jennifer Saunders.
She and Saunders helped launch The comic Strip and created their eponymous television comedy show.
But French has also had phenomenal success on her own, with The Vicar Of Dibley and the Sky One comedy Delicious (in which she plays a chef). and she has written a succession of best- selling novels. harrison said he believed French had been flirting with the idea of playing panto for a long time.
he told how the actress-writer often dropped by the theatre at Plymouth to catch their panto offerings. ‘She was hearing about the Palladium and she liked that everyone was having a good time, on and off stage,’ he said.
‘She’s looking forward to working with Julian. as the wicked Queen, she’s the one who summons the Man In The Mirror — Julian’s character.'
he added that he, French and Clary would get together ‘very soon' to plot an outline for the panto and pen some funny lines.
‘everyone’s best bits will be in the show,’ harrison told me from Toronto, where he and producer Paul elliott have transferred the recent west end production of annie.
harrison said the beauty of having French involved in the 2018 pantomime is that she’s ‘a natural comic' on the stage and the page, ‘which is a bonus’. The five-week run at the Palladium will start on December 8.
This year’s crazy Gang will also include former Strictly professional dancers Vincent Simone and Flavia cacace; while Snow white’s Magnificent Seven helpers will be played by Josh Bennett, Simeon Dyer Graig Garner, Leigh Gill, Ben Goffe Jamie John and Blake Lisle.