As the clocks go forward heralding spring, it's time to look forward to 2015's Easter Panto Season.
The past three years have seen rapid growth in the Easter sector and this year almost a third of all Christmas panto presenting theatres will receive an Easter pantomime.
2015 will see eight titles presented in England; notably the current touring circuits do not yet stretch to Scotland or Northern Ireland. It is also interest to note that with 2015 being the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, there is only one Alice Easter panto—that of the Bull Theatre, Barnet.
As ever, The Wizard of Oz is the most popular Easter panto with the Chuckle Brothers touring their Chuckles of Oz last seen in Darlington at Christmas. Shone Productions's version of the tale stars Ashleigh and Pudsey as Dorothy and Toto with other productions including those from Polka Dot Pantomimes and DK Productions at the Compass Theatre, Ickenham.
Wicked Productions's two-venue tour in 2014 has grown immensely and this year's Robin Hood and the Merry Men will visit eleven towns as it tours the UK with Hi-5's Chris Edgerley as Robin Hood, Britain's Got Talent's Philip Green as Little John and Wicked regulars Tom and Amanda Swift as Silly Willy Scarlett and Maid Marian.
Similarly, Magic Beans Pantomimes have also increased their venues this year to ten as their new Easter Panto The Pirates of Treasure Island featuring Sid Sloane and Edele Lynch tours Southern England. Like Wicked Productions, The Pirates of Treasure Island also features a whole host of Magic Beans familiar faces, in particular Robert Pearce and Ant Payne as Mrs Smollett and Silly Billy Bones and Jasette Amos as the Mermaid.
Other companies to be mounting Easter tours include Magic Light Productions's Red Riding Hood and Trio Entertainment's Peter Pan with X-Factor's Christopher Maloney as Captain Hook.
Of all the production companies, perhaps the first to tour an Easter panto was Enchanted Entertainment, which continues its tradition with Bobby Davro, Dani Harmer and Lee Latchford-Evans in Beauty and the Beast. The opportunity to tour and work with a range of venues puts companies in good stead for taking on new tenders and also provides them with the chance to work with celebrities and panto practitioners with whom they might not otherwise get to work. For theatres, such productions can also act as 'trial-runs' should they be looking for new pantomime producers.
Beauty and the Beast will, in fact, enjoy two productions this season with LHK Production's show in Liverpool featuring 5ive's Ritchie Neville. The Epstein Theatre's production forms one of a handful of venues hosting a pantomime that is not part of a tour. Likewise, the Dugdale Centre, Enfield's Pinocchio and the Theatre Royal, St Helens's Sleeping Beauty suggest that loyal audiences for more than one resident panto a year do exist, each venue having established and built up an Easter business over a series of seasons.
Looking ahead to the festive season, March has seen a whole host of celebrities and panto regulars announced for towns and cities up and down the country including Alison Hammond (Sunderland), Jake Wood, Katrina Bryan and Bob Golding (St Albans), Simon Webbe (Nottingham), Stephen Mulhern (Croydon), Rita Simons, Phil Gallagher, Ben Roddy and Lloyd Hollett (Canterbury), William Caulfield (Derry), Sam Bailey (Aylesbury), Gareth Gates, Keith Harris and Orville (Crewe), Duncan James and Joe Pasquale (Southampton), Paul Morse (Reading), Gok Wan and Paul Zerdin (Plymouth), Adam Woodyatt (Swindon), Todd Carty and Lloyd Warbey (Fareham), Brian Conley and Lesley Joseph (Southend), Ian 'H' Watkins, Gareth Thomas, Linda Lusardi, Sam Kane, Andy Jones and Mike Doyle (Cardiff) and Louie Spence (Swansea).
After many years in Lincoln, Cannon and Ball return to Qdos and join Joe McElderry in Hull's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, whilst Ashleigh and Pudsey join the world's largest pantomime company for Darlington's Cinderella.
Imagine Theatre returns to Leicester to produce De Montfort Hall's panto, this time without the doyenne of panto Susie McKenna at the helm. This year, Iain Lachlan and Will Brenton provide the script with Sherrie Hewson, Jon Clegg and Martin Ballard announced as the stars.
Barrow's new pantomime company Strictly Pantomimes has announced that Richard Aucott will be writing, directing and playing Dame in Jack and the Beanstalk whilst Go!Go!Go!'s Jade will play Fairy Sweet Pea, heralding not only a new production company but new creative teams for Aucott after seasons at the Harpenden Hall and with Polka Dot Pantomimes.
After last month's call for more diversity and creativity, March has also seen some exciting new titles and projects revealed. The New Wolsey, Ipswich will present The Sword in the Stone, a brand new rock 'n' roll panto courtesy of Peter Rowe, for Christmas 2015 with the Olympia Theatre, Dublin capitalising on Disney's big hit with Freezin'! the Story of the Snow Queen starring Al Porter as Lolly Polly.
In addition to its usual festive programme, Newcastle Pantomime Company has announced that it will take to the stage this summer in its first ever summer panto The Lambton Worm, one of the region's most famous folktales, whilst Macrobert, Stirling will put its very own take on the rarely pantomised tale of The Little Mermaid written by, directed by and starring Johnny McKnight.
Last month, we asked readers to tell us where top UK Dame Christopher Biggins would be appearing in panto for the chance to win a copy of Jeffrey Richard's new book The Golden Age of Pantomime. The correct answer was the Theatre Royal Nottingham, which this week saw Biggins host part of their 150th anniversary celebrations before he returns to play Widow Twankey at Christmas.
Congratulations to our winners Ben Fletcher-Watson, Andy Medhurst and Richard Aucott—your copies are in the post.