Panto ready to go? Oh no it isn’t

Dominic Penna THE pandemic has all but killed off this year’s panto season after five productions confirmed the show will not go on this Christmas.

Four theatres in London – the Hackney Empire, the Lyric Hammersmith, the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, and the Theatre Royal Stratford East – issued a joint statement yesterday which confirmed that their productions have been postponed until winter 2021.

The Blackpool Grand Theatre has

also delayed its planned production of

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which would have accounted for 44 per cent of the theatre’s annual income, until next Christmas.

Social distancing measures would have reduced the capacity of the 126-year-old Grade II listed building from 1,100 to just 200, making the production financially unviable, according to Ruth Eastwood, the chief executive.

“From a community point of view the pantomime is the highlight of our year,” she said. “It’s the longest run we do of anything and it’s an intergenerational experience – pantomime is about tradition and repetition and familiarity.

“We sell many, many thousands of tickets and generate just under half a million pounds so it’s a very important part of our economy.”

In more positive news for theatregoers, it was also announced yesterday that actors from the recent revival of Alan Bennett’s television series Talking Heads will reprise their roles if the London’s Bridge Theatre is allowed to reopen next month.