Christmas shows 2022 round-up - panto is properly back

CHRISTMAS SHOWS 2022 Panto is properly back

Glittery stars and local heroes

What joy it is to have pantomime and Christmas shows back with full audiences up and down the country – everything from local shows to star-driven productions, many of them postponed from 2020 but with an awful lot happening in between to provide the topical references.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Birmingham Hippodrome review - Jason Donovan makes his panto debut

★★★★ GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS, BIRMINGHAM HIPPODROME Jason Donovan makes his panto debut against type as the baddie

Australian soap veteran plays against type as the baddie

There was a time when UK pantomime was heavily populated by Australian soap stars; rather late in the day Jason Donovan – formerly known as Scott from Neighbours – makes his panto debut, as Count (careful how you pronounce that, Jason) Ramsay of Erinsborough.

Album: Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

★★★ IRON MAIDEN - SENJUTSU A slightly portly old Maiden has still got some sizzle in her

17 albums in and a slightly portly old Maiden has still got some sizzle in her

Iron Maiden are in very many senses as English, as camp and as ridiculous as Christmas pantomime, even down to the “HE’S BEHIND YOU!” looming of their vast onstage zombie mascot Eddie. Which is not to say there’s nothing to them: far from it. Just like pantomime, their durability shows how much they speak to something deep and archetypal in their audience’s spirit.

Dick Whittington, National Theatre at Home review - colourful and amiable entertainment

★★★ DICK WHITTINGTON, NATIONAL THEATRE Colourful & amiable entertainment

Free stream of the NT's Covid-affected pantomime

In a much-depleted and truncated pantomime season that withered on the vine, the National Theatre's debut production of Dick Whittington lasted only four performances before the show was cancelled; it has now released this recording, which will be available throughout the current lockdown.

Pantomimes 2020 round-up: what's available online

PANTOMIMES 2020 ROUND-UP What's available online, children and adults catered for

Children and adults are catered for

Cinderella ****

I did worry that pantomime – that most audience-driven of theatrical pursuits – might not work through the tube, but Nottingham Playhouse's warm and funny show dispels any doubts. Pandemic jokes abound (the audience must be smelly because they're sitting far apart, for instance) in writer-director Adam Penford's inventive romp.