Invitation to the ball: Grand Opera House announces Cinderella for next winter
TICKETS will go on sale at noon on Friday for next year’s Grand Opera House pantomime in York. The Cumberland Street theatre will present Cinderella from December 6 2025 to January 4 2026 in its fourth collaboration with UK Productions.
As with this winter’s panto, Beauty And The Beast, the show will feature a script by Jon Monie, winner of Best Script at the 2019 Great British Pantomime Awards.
Promising side-splitting comedy, lavish settings and adorable miniature ponies, Cinderella will be “more fun than you can shake a pumpkin at”. Star casting is to be announced but “expect stars from the West End and screen”.
Laura McMillan, the Grand Opera House theatre director, says: “As we open the spectacular Beauty And The Beast, we’re delighted that UK Productions will be returning next year with the most beloved of pantomimes of all time, Cinderella. I’m sure adults and children alike will be spellbound by this magical new show.”
UK Productions producer Martin Dodd says: “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without pantomime, and pantomime wouldn’t be pantomime without Cinderella. We are delighted to be presenting this fabulous story at York’s beautiful Grand Opera House, building on the success of this year’s musical pantomime, Beauty And The Beast.”
To take advantage of early bird ticket savings, book by Saturday, February 1 2025 to save £8 per ticket on select performances and seats.
Beauty And The Beast will run until January 5 2025 with a West End cast featuring CBBC’s BAFTA award-winning Dani Harmer, from Tracy Beaker and Strictly ComeDancing, as Fairy Bon Bon; dameLeon Craig, fromEverybody’s Talking About Jamie, as Polly La Plonk,Jennifer Caldwell, from SIX The Musical, as Belle, andSamuel Wyn-Morris, fromLes Misérables, as The Prince. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
York Theatre Royal’s promotional poster for dame Robin Simpson’s return in Sleeping Beauty in 2025
ROBIN Simpson will return for his sixth season as the dame in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime for 2025-26, Sleeping Beauty, billed as “an enchanting tale of adventure, fun and spellbinding magic for the whole family”.
Co-produced with regular partners Evolution Productions, the show will run from December 2 2025 to January 4 2026, with “stunning costumes, gorgeous sets, dazzling special effects and all the spectacular magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime”.
The show will be written by Evolution producer Paul Hendy and directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, the team behind Aladdin this winter, Jack And The Beanstalk in 2023, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan in 2022, Cinderella in 2021 and the community-touring Travelling Pantomime in Covid-shadowed 2020.
Forster says: “We’ve been delighted to see so many people returning year after year to enjoy the magic of a York Theatre Royal pantomime. We are so proud of the quality of the pantos we make and can’t wait to continue our panto adventures with Sleeping Beauty. It’s so brilliant to have Robin on board again too to bring the hilarity and fun as our dame!”
Hendy says: “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the fabulous team at York Theatre Royal again for our spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty. We are delighted Robin will be returning as our wonderful dame, and we can’t wait to share with you more exciting casting news in the New Year!”
Simpson enthuses: “I am overjoyed to be playing the dame in next year’s Sleeping Beauty. I love the York audiences and it’s such a special place to perform every year at Christmas time. I’m looking forward to all the high jinks the dame will get up to in Sleeping Beauty!”
Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Early birds who book before the end of March 2025 can benefit from a price freeze on ticket prices, with options ranging from £15 to £43.50.
Family ticket discounts can be booked for £90 (for three including at least one child) and £120 (for four including at least one child.) Schools discounts are available when booking via the St Leonard’s Place box office.
YTR Members receive an extra ten per cent off up to four tickets. For details of how to join YTR Membership, visit yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or contact the box office.
To beard or not to beard? Paul Hawkyard, left, will retain his, but Robin Simpson will shed his to play Dame Dolly in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
IT could be disconcerting interviewing the dame in week two of rehearsals for Aladdin when Robin Simpson’s beard remains in imperial flourish, especially when his playing style is the antithesis of rough and ready.
Be assured, the whiskers will be long gone when the Yorkshireman begins his fifth York Theatre Royal pantomime next Tuesday, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey in a nod to acknowledging modern-day sensitivities and cultural diplomacy.
As ever, Robin’s dame will be lovable. “I’ve never been a big fan, even in normal life, of putting people down. Dames can be quite cruel but I would never do that,” he says. “When I pick out a man in the audience to be in the spotlight at each show, what I want afterwards is for him to go, ‘I’m so glad I was chosen because I had a great time’.
“My dame personality also comes from performing in front of children a lot [Robin does solo storytelling shows too], accepting their offers [suggestions and comments], working with what they give you, incorporating it, making it work. The aim has to be to give everyone a good time, when it can be too easy in pantomimes to make someone feel they’re being picked on. You don’t need to do that. I believe the dame should be nice.”
Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly in York Theatre’s first poster image for Aladdin, released in January
His style epitomises the new age of the York Theatre Royal pantomime crafted since 2020 by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and award-winning Evolution Productions director and script writer Paul Hendy.
“Our panto does appeal to both adults and children,” says Robin. “You have to have something for the adults, nothing too specific, but ‘bum jokes’ too for the children. You need fabulous costumes and you have to do the story properly, while having a side-wink to the audience that says ‘ we know this is all crazy’!
“We always have an eye on being entertaining for children: you can’t have the baddie being too scary or the dame being too rude!”
On the subject of the villain, Robin will be renewing his badinage with fellow West Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, who returns to the dark side at the Theatre Royal as Abanazar after a gap year appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.
Robin Simpson’s Manky, left, and Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy, the scheming stepsisters, in Cinderella at York Theatre Royal in 2021
Simpson and Hawkyard first revelled in their award-nominated panto double act when things turned ugly as stepsisters Manky and Mardy in Cinderella in 2021. “It’s great to have him back,” says Robin, who also played Mrs Smee to Paul’s Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan! in 2022.
“It’s nice to have that familiarity, and to have similar scenes and routines to past shows, like the ghost gag bench but with a different song. Some of the same catchphrases and punchlines too: the more that people come and see the shows, the more they’ll say, ‘that’s the thing they do’, but you don’t want to force them. They have to be natural.
“The audiences have been great since we started, and hopefully we’ve been growing that audience each year with the shows going from strength to strength. However each one is put together by Juliet and Paul, their decision to cast a CBeebies star each time has worked really well: it’s really wonderful to have Evie Pickerill this year. She’s such a delight to work with – and what great singing voice she has too.
“We have a strong ensemble and we’re a team of really committed people. Pantomimes can be lazy but that’s not the case with here, where Juliet and Paul put everything into constantly finding something funny that appeals to the widest audience.”
Robin Simpson in children’s storyteller mode
Robin’s dame loves to be the dispenser of “lots of fun”. “I’ve been playing dame for eight years now, three in Huddersfield [at the Lawrence Batley Theatre] and now five here, and of all the roles in pantomime, it’s certainly the most interesting one for me as you haven’t got the limitations on you that the leading man and the leading girl have.
“I don’t have to carry the show. That’s up to Aladdin and co. They have the emotional story and earnestness. I can just come on, say a few jokes and fall over. At my age, that’s what I like, though I don’t mean to do it a disservice. The gender reversals in theatre have been going on for many years. They’ve always been part of the theatre tradition.”
Robin has returned to York after working with Pitlochry Festival Theatre, heading from Scotland to the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, and OVO, St Albans too on tour. “It’s taken up pretty much my year,” he says. “I did seven months, a proper old-fashioned rep season, with the seventh month at the Wolsey in Ipswich in a co-production of Footloose.
“I was the Reverend and I really enjoyed being put in a musical, which is not something I’m usually considered for. It was good to be out of my comfort zone,” he says.
Robin Simpson having “lots of fun” in rehearsal for his fifth dame’s role at York Theatre Royal in Aladdin. Picture: SR Taylor Photography
“Though I was also in another musical in the season: Beautiful, the Carole King musical, playing Donny Kirshner, Carole’s manager, who managed The Monkees too. We had the same cast for three shows, with me playing Sir John Middleton and Mrs Ferrars in Sense And Sensibility…”
…Mrs Ferrars, you say? “I think they must have heard I played the dame! It was all very much multi-role-playing with only eight of us in the cast. She has only one scene, so none of your pantomime rouge for Mrs Ferrars. We didn’t have time for that.
“She’s really dislikeable! A horrible tyrant of a woman!” Totally unlike Robin’s dame.
York Theatre Royal presents Aladdin from December 3 to January 5. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Aladdin cast members Tommy Carmichael, left, Paul Hawkyard, Evie Pickerill, Robin Simpson and Emily Tang outside York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ant Robling
STARS of the 2024-2025 pantomime Aladdin have gathered for a launch day at York Theatre Royal.
Present were Robin Simpson, who will return for his fifth panto season as the dame, this time playing Dame Dolly rather than the traditional role of Widow Twankey, and fellow Yorkshire actor Paul Hawkyard, renewing his badinage with Simpson as villainous Abanazar after a gap year from the Theatre Royal show, appearing in pantomime in Dubai instead last winter.
There too were Evie Pickerill, the latest CBeebies presenter to join the Theatre Royal-Evolution Productions co-production, cast as the Spirit of the Ring; Emily Tang, who will play Princess Jasmine, and Tommy Carmichael, whose role will be Charlie.
Absent from Tuesday’s media event was Saria Solomon, otherwise engaged on tour playing Donny in the musical Grease, but he had attended a launch already in June to promote his title role in the York panto, to be directed once more by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution director Paul Hendy, winner of the Best Script award for Aladdin at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, in the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards.
The first name to be confirmed for Aladdin was Robin Simpson, as early as during last winter’s run of Jack And The Beanstalk, wherein his Dame Trott followed up his Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Ugly Sister Manky in a Pantomime Awards-nominated double act with Hawkyard’s Mardy. In the socially distanced first winter of Covid, he had first played the Theatre Royal’s dame in The Travelling Pantomime that toured to community centres around York.
“It’s nice they have that faith in me not to put people off,” he says of being the first poster face of the promotional campaign for Aladdin.
Hello, Dolly: Robin Simpson’s Dame Dolly, starring in Aladdin at York Theatre Royal this winter. Picture: Ant Robling
After his partnership with Zeus, the scene-stealing Border Collie, in Jack And The Beanstalk, Robin will resume striking comedy sparks with Paul Hawkyard. “Paul’s very uncontrollable,” he says. “He doesn’t follow orders, but he does work for treats. It’s nice to have him back, and it’s always nice to be back at the Theatre Royal.
“A few years ago I wouldn’t have envisaged that I’d be doing panto for ten years now, because before that I didn’t really do panto, as the kids were young and I liked to be at home with them for Christmas.
“I understudied Berwick [Kaler] here one year. The Huddersfield panto came along, and then I started working here with the ‘pandemic panto’ when theatres were in flux, and it’s a joy to be back again for Aladdin.”
Guess who Paul Hawkyard played in his panto season away from York. “I was the dame! I went to Dubai over the Christmas period to appear in Beauty And The Beast there – and it was gorgeous,” he says. “As you’re rehearsing, in between scenes if you’re not in that scene, you can dive into the swimming pool and relax – but make sure to remove your flip-flops before you go back into the rehearsal room.”
Now Paul will be returning to the dark side as Abanazar after playing Captain Hook in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. “It’s great to be back with Robin. We keep in touch with each other, like painting a portrait of his mam’s dog,” says wildlife artist Paul. “It’s lovely to be back working with Juliet [Forster] too, and it’s been so uplifting to have had messages from people saying they’d missed me last year.
“Being welcomed by York is a good feeling, and it’s such a good panto because the standard is so high: the costumes, the scenery, Paul’s script, the speciality acts. It’s another level.
Paul Hawkyard’s Abanazar on the York Theatre Royal stage. Picture: Ant Robling
“And the lovely thing about me and Robin is that it’s not just the chemistry on stage. He’ll stay over at my home if he’s passing by when he’s doing his story shows.”
Evie Pickerill, one of the principal presenters on the children’s television channel CBeebies since 2018 and a regular CBBC host too, follows Andy Day, Mandy Moate and James “Raven” McKenzie in joining the Theatre Royal panto ranks. “That’s big shoes to fill,” she says. “Playing the Spirit of the Ring will be my first time on the York stage but I’ve been to York a handful of times and love it here.
“I played Cinderella at The Grand, Wolverhampton, and Leicester de Montford Hall and Snow White at Wolverhampton, and this will be a different kind of role. With the Spirit of the Ring, there’s a bit of comedy, a bit of silliness.
“After doing panto for Imagine and in-house at Wolverhampton, working for Evolution at York Theatre Royal is big-boy panto; they’re the king of panto. Apparently we’ll be doing a lot of character work, which is different from the other pantos I’ve done.”
Before rehearsals begin for Aladdin, Evie will be heading up to Edinburgh to record the CBeebies pantomime at the Festival Theatre and then returning to the BBC studio. “I’m playing the Robin in Beauty And The Beast,” she reveals. The Robin, Evie? “She’s Belle’s best friend, and she flies – and I’ve never flown across a stage before. That’s exciting!”
Evie loves pantomime. “I first went when I was seven or eight and straightaway I said to my parents, ‘that’s what I want to do’,” she says. “I left home at 18 to go to drama school in Liverpool, doing the acting course at LIPA, and I’ve never looked back.”
Aladdin will run at York Theatre Royal from December 3 to January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Evie Pickerill’s Spirit of the Ring. Picture: Ant Robling
HE’S bad and he’s back. Paul Hawkyard will return to the villain’s role in the 2024-2025 York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions pantomime after a year’s hiatus.
The towering Leeds-born actor and wildlife artist will play Abanazar in creative director Juliet Forster’s production of Aladdin, written by Evolution director Paul Hendy in a new York adaptation of the script he premiered at The Marlowe, Canterbury, last winter with Strictly Come Dancing alumnus Kevin Clifton as the baddie.
Clifton, by the way, is among The Marlowe’s record-breaking eight nominations for the UK Pantomime Association’s 2024 Pantomime Awards for Best Newcomer to Pantomime for his debut as Ivan Tochachacha, in essence Abanazar re-booted with a dancing moniker.
Writer Hendy was nominated too for Best Script, alongside Best Pantomime (over 900 seats), Best Dame, Best Lead, Best Magical Being, Best Supporting Artist and Best Contribution to Music.
Leeds-born actor Paul Hawkyard
The winners will be announced in an awards ceremony at G Live, Guildford, on June 18, when York Theatre Royal will be represented by Jack And The Beanstalk cast members Mia Overfield and Anna Soden.
Overfield is nominated in the Best Early Career Newcomer category for her role as Jack in her panto debut, a year after completing her musical theatre studies at Arden School of Theatre, Manchester.
In her home-city panto, Soden played Dave the talking cow, a very different kind of pantomime cow, in a scene-stealing turn that has led to her nomination in the Best Supporting Artist category.
Meanwhile, back to Aladdin in York, where Hawkyard will be renewing his fruitful, feisty pantomime partnership with regular dame Robin Simpson, returning for his fifth successive Theatre Royal panto.
Rev-olution: Robin Simpson and Paul Hawkyard roar onto stage in their irreverent Ugly Sister double act Manky & Mardy in York Theatre Royal’s Cinderella
Hawkyard and Simpson received a UK Pantomime Awards nomination for their Ugly Sister double act Manky & Mardy in 2021-2022’s Cinderella, then bonded in baddie badinage over the next winter as Captain Hook and Mrs Smee respectively in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan.
Hawkyard and Simpson first worked together in the Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre company at the Eye of York, sharing a dressing room from the day they started. In 2022, they reunited for Harrogate Theatre’s HT Rep season of three plays in three weeks, Simpson appearing in all three, Abigail’s Party, Gaslight and Men Of The World; Hawkyard in the first and last.
They will be joined in Aladdin by CBeebies and CBBC presenter Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring. Further casting will be announced shortly.
Tickets for Aladdin’s run from December 3 to January 5 2025 are on sale on 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
She likes to moove it, moove it: Anna Soden’s Dave the talking cow in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. Picture: S R Taylor
YORK Theatre Royal pantomime stars Mia Overfield and Anna Soden are in the running for the 2024 UK Pantomime Awards.
Mia is nominated in the Best Early Career Newcomer category for her role as Jack in her panto debut in Jack And The Beanstalk, a year after completing her musical theatre studies at Arden School of Theatre,Manchester.
In her home-city panto, Anna played Dave the talking cow, a very different kind of pantomime cow, in a scene-stealing turn that led to her nomination in the Best Supporting Artist category.
Mia Overfield’s Jack with the giant Blunderbore in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor
Anna, who grew up in York, was a member of York Youth Theatre for a decade and was part of the young people’s ensemble for Theatre Royal shows, including The Railway Children at the National Railway Museum and the 2006 panto Cinderella.
In 2020, she appeared as the bass guitar-playing Fairy in York Theatre Royal’s socially distanced Travelling Pantomime, toured to York community centres under Covid restrictions.
The awards ceremony, held in association with Stagecoach, will take place at G Live, Guildford, on June 18 after the 70 judges had their busiest year yet in the awards’ third year, collectively visiting 259 venues to see 728 performances across the UK.
Reason to be cheerful: 2024 UK Pantomime Awards nominees Mia Overfield and Anna Soden. Picture: S R Taylor
Among them, Jack And The Beanstalk was the third pantomime produced on the Theatre Royal stage in partnership with panto specialists Evolution Productions, directed by Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and written by Evolution’s Paul Hendy.
After Cinderella, All New Adventures Of Peter Pan and Jack And The Beanstalk, the team will reunite for the 2024-2025 Theatre Royal pantomime, Aladdin, from December 3 to January 5, when Robin Simpson will return for a fifth winter as the Dame, joined by CBeebies and CBBC presenter Evie Pickerill as the Spirit of the Ring.
Evie, who has guest starred on Blue Peter, has been hosting CBeebies since 2018 and during that time she has performed leading roles in their Christmas and Shakespeare productions too.
Evie Pickerill: CBeebies presenter will reunite with York Theatre Royal pantomime director Juliet Forster for Aladdin
Aladdin director Juliet Forster will be directing her for a second time. “I’m absolutely delighted to be welcoming Evie to York Theatre Royal’s stage this Christmas. I worked with Evie on CBeebies’ Romeo & Juliet– she made a wonderful Juliet and was a joy to work with.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing her bring her unique, lovable style to pantomime. We are so lucky to have her, and York audiences are in for a treat!”
Aladdin writer and Evolution producer Paul Hendy enthuses: “We’re delighted Evie Pickerill will be joining Robin Simpson in our spectacular production. I’ve been lucky enough to see Evie in pantomime before and know that she’s going to bring a sparkle and flare to the show that our audiences will adore! This really is shaping up to be our biggest and funniest show ever!”
Evie is no stranger to pantomime, having played Cinderella and Snow White previously, and she also performed in the musical Shout! at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival after first appearing in the show during her Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts studies. Last year she hosted her first radio show on Heart North West.
Alongside her passion for the arts, Evie is a supporter of several children’s charities, taking part in fundraising events for Comic Relief and Children In Need and becoming a champion for Place2Be in 2022.
Robin Simpson: The dame with the golden pun, confirmed for fifth successive York Theatre Royal pantomime
ACTOR and storyteller Robin Simpson’s diary for 2024 is filling up already.
Now playing Dame Trott in castellated Clifford’s Tower and afternoon tea dresses in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal until January 7, he will return for dame duty for a fifth York winter in succession in Aladdin from December 3 to January 5 2025, once more co-produced with Evolution Productions, written by Paul Hendy and directed by Juliet Forster.
“It’s always lovely to be the first to be announced for the cast, and to be coming back again,” he says. “It’s nice to be wanted!”
On top of that, via social media ahead of official confirmation from Scotland, the Yorkshireman has revealed his audition success to be part of Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s company for the 2024 Summer Season from May 31 to September 26.
In the meantime, Robin, who lives near Huddersfield, is revelling in his latest turn at the Theatre Royal. “I’ve been performing here for nearly 20 years now in all sorts of shows,” he says. “My first-ever show in 2005 was Mike Kenny’s The Little Mermaid, which we performed in the Studio.”
After his flexible Dame at the double in a choice of shows on The Travelling Pantomime tour of community venues under Covid restrictions in 2020, followed by his Ugly Sister Manky opposite Paul Hawkyard’s Mardy in Cinderella in 2021 and Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan last winter, his Dame Trott is the classic dame per se.
Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott in York Theatre Royal’s Travelling Pantomime under Covid reglations in 2020
“Jack And The Beanstalk is one of the more traditional stories that a pantomime can be based on, being an old English folktale. This is the first year at York Theatre Royal – apart from the Travelling Pantomime in 2020 – that I’m playing a traditional dame character,” says Robin.
“She’s my first ‘proper’ dame here: working class, with a couple of kids. The Sisters in Cinderella are a different concept and Mrs Smee was a henchman for Captain Hook, as Peter Pan doesn’t have a traditional dame, and instead I shared the comic role with Jonny Weldon’s Starkey! Dame Trott is the mother to the title character and that’s a very traditional role for the dame to play.”
Reflecting on the gradual progression of the Theatre Royal partnership with Evolution, Robin says: “You never want to get stale with what you do, and it’s lovely to have new people in the cast. Apart from the one-off Travelling Panto, we’re only in our third year, so it’s still quite a new partnership, and though there’s a house style developing, it will be a while before we fully find our own style.
“The pantomimes have been great, the scripts are excellent and I never worry about the changes in the cast because they’re always cast really well. It’s a joy to work with them.”
This season is not the first time that Robin has Trotted out his Dame Trott in York. How does she differ in 2023-2024 from the simpler version in the 70-minute Travelling Pantomime? “She has a different costume on. Otherwise, she’s very similar as I’m a one-trick pony. She’s slightly older,” he says.
Robin Simpson in storytelling mode
How did Robin spend his 2023? “I did a season of plays in Eastbourne over the summer and I filmed a couple of episodes of Coronation Street,” he says. “I play the vet and I put Maureen Lipman’s dog, Cerberus, to sleep [Note of clarification: Lipman plays Evelyn Plummer]. A few years ago, I put Ken Barlow’s dog, Eccles, to sleep as well. Every few years they ring me up to put a dog out of its misery and make the nation cry.
“I’ve also had my busiest year with regard to my storytelling. I performed at Blenheim Palace and Sledmere House [near Driffield], and over the summer I had a busy time with the Summer Reading Challenge in libraries all over England. I also performed Magic, Monsters & Mayhem at Rise@Bluebird Bakery in Acomb in September, with magical stories of monsters, lots of comedy and audience interaction. The storytelling side of things is getting bigger all the time, which is nice.”
Robin has been cruising too. Work or pleasure? “Oh, work, but only just,” he says. “Classic is a show I did at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022 and I thought that that was that, but it was booked by Cunard Cruises for their Mediterranean trip, leaving from Naples, visiting places like Barcelona. Written by Peter Kerry and Lyndsay Williams, it’s very funny and fast paced, racing through the 42 greatest works of literature in one hour. It’s a crazy show but a lot of fun.”
Crazy show? Fun? That would sum up Jack And The Beanstalk too, a show marked by Robin’s skills of comedic interaction and improvisation. “You need to leave your ego at the door, be willing to play and not take yourself too seriously,” he says of the art of playing pantomime.
“It’s a balance between childishness and professionalism. Improvising is a really tricky thing but if you listen to your fellow actor, accept their suggestions and be willing to go with the flow, you shouldn’t go wrong. It keeps things fresh.”
Jack And The Beanstalk runs wild at York Theatre Royal until January 7; Aladdin, December 3 to January 5 2025. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Aladdin tickets are available from £15; family tickets for the best seats are £81 for a family of three and £108 for a family of four.
Robin Simpson’s Ugly Sister Manky, in the sidecar, and Paul Hawkyard’s Ugly Sister Mardy, at the wheel, in York Theatre Royal’s Cinderella in 2021
One final question for Robin
Are you hot to Trott?
“You’d have to ask my wife.”
Did you know?
ROBIN Simpson has played three roles in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
1. Chartered surveyor Graeme Lewis, June 2004.
2. The Surgeon, operating on pregnant Kylie Platt’s ruptured spleen, February 2013.
3. The Vet, putting Ken Barlow’s dog, Eccles, to sleep in April 2020, followed by Evelyn Plummer’s canine, Cerberus, in March 2023.
Did you know too?
PAUL Hawkyard, Robin Simpson’s fellow Ugly Sister in Cinderella and Captain Hook to his Mrs Smee in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan last winter, has painted a picture for an 80th birthday present for Robin’s mother, featuring a portrait of her dogs.
In Focus: Matthew Curnier on playing Billy Trott and his past careers as a marine biologist and science teacher
Matthew Curnier’s Billy Trott, front, left, with Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott and Mia Overfield’s Jack Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk. Picture: S R Taylor Photography
How did you land the role of dim-witted Billy Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk?
“I’d actually met Juliet [director Juliet Forster] already for an audition for the UK tour of Around The World In 80 Days that she was directing. It may have been in January, and what I then didn’t realise was that Juliet worked at York Theatre Royal.
“It was only later that I learnt that Juliet had asked for my self-tape for the pantomime audition, and not the co-producers, Evolution Productions. I feel very honoured to have been chosen.”
What other roles have you played in pantomime?
“I’ve been doing panto comic for ten years now and love it every time. I’ve always played the panto comic, because I just love being able to play the fool, especially around Christmas when you get to just be a Silly Billy!
“When I’m a little older and a little wiser, I hope that I’ll be able to move onto playing Dame. In the meantime, I’m watching and learning, and only time will tell.”
What are the characteristics of your panto role?
“Hopefully I’m able to bring a lot of silliness and dimwittedness, and there’s the lovely relationship between the comic and the dame too. There’s something wonderful about being the comic, where you can work with the dame, and each time the dynamic is different, depending on who you play opposite. With every dame, there’s not been a single year gone by where I’ve not learned something from them.
“What I tend to do in my performance is a lot of physical comedy, falling over, slapstick, being stupid! That really plays to the kids, and with all that energy, you can bring a lot of competitiveness to the song-sheet too.
“The ‘cleverer’ stuff can grow out of the partnership with the dame. That’s the two-tiered levels of comedy in panto: the children’s stuff and then all those double-entendres that go over the kids’ heads, and the one-liners, but I always lean to the over-exuberant, hapless dimwit.”
Where and when did you see your first pantomime and what was your reaction?
“I remember going to the theatre from time to time as a child. I think we went to see Gilbert & Sullivan shows (because I had an aunt who loved them and often performed in them) and the local village panto. It just always looked like the actors were having a lot of fun. And so I knew pretty early on that I wanted in.”
You were born in Paris, moved to this country at a young age and grew up bilingually. Do you do much work in France/French?
“I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to work in both countries. While most of my work is here in the UK, the last project I did in France was the recording of a beautiful audiobook; an epic novel written in Alexandrine verse – a little bit like Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter but instead of ten beats in a phrase, there are 12, which suits Latin-rooted languages a little better. It was so wonderful.
“It’s helpful being able to speak French and sound French. It also seems to get me seen for some nice projects here in the UK. For example, I often do voice work in French and play French characters. This year I had a role as a French sommelier in Industry series three for the BBC. Mais oui, mais oui!”
Before becoming an actor, you studied marine zoology and marine mammalogy. which took you all over the world. Why make the switch to acting?
“It’s true, my very first career was in marine zoology and mammology. I became a marine biologist and was able to conduct research, primarily in whales and dolphins in fabulous places like Canada, Scotland, Kenya. The results of the research were often for conservation purposes. I absolutely loved doing this work and saw some breathtaking nature.
“After a few years, my other burning passion – which was theatre and acting – started calling very strongly. From the age of 12, I knew that I wanted to be an actor but it never seemed ‘possible’ or ‘realistic’.
“I think I found out a little later than other people that it is, actually, a job and so once I found out that I could go to drama school and get an agent, I thought I would chance my luck, going to drama school at the age of 30.
“I trained at the London Centre, and post-drama school, I did quite a lot at the Actors Class with the wonderful Mary Doherty, who I would consider as my acting mentor, teaching young actors the professional side of being an actor: how to market yourself, how to do auditions, etc. She’s been a real guide to me.”
What prompted you to become a qualified secondary science teacher?
“Well, a very wise person (hiya Mum!) once told me that I could do whatever job I pleased in life, but it did have to permit me to stand on my own two feet financially speaking. I was living in Kenya at the time, working on a marine biology conservation project, when I had an epiphany: I just knew that I had to come home and try to be an actor.
“But as everyone knows, there are no guarantees in finding work as an actor. So, repeating my mum’s words in my mind, I decided to become a secondary science specialist teacher (and use my marine biology background) so that in between acting work, I could earn enough money with supply teaching and/or private tuition.
“I planned to do two years as a teacher; the first would be my teacher-training year, the second would be my probationary year before I became fully qualified. Teaching in secondary schools was utterly fantastic; every day was a rollercoaster and I eventually ended up leaving the classroom after five years.”
Do you have any unusual interests or activities, apart from marine zoology and teaching, away from acting?
“Yes, I love doing algebra. (This is obviously untrue: I’m actually rubbish at maths). This is a great question to ask…and I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and haven’t yet found the time or courage to do this…and so stating it here will commit me…it will force me to do it…one day I’m going to get my paraglider’s licence. Because why not?.There, I’ve said it out loud now!”
Do you have any York or Yorkshire connections?
“Well, not really. Although, having said that, my English grandparents were Yorkshire folk. My Grandad grew up in Huddersfield and my Gran was a Sheffield lass, so maybe there are a few drops of Yorkshire blood in me after all. It’s a pleasure to become acquainted with it this year.
“The panto press launch in September was my first time in York. I walked from York station to the theatre and though I was told it would take 11 minutes, looking at all the sights on the way, it took me half an hour, on such a beautiful day too.”
Can you teach an old dame new tricks? Ask Zeus the border collie, working in tandem with Robin Simpson’s lead actor (ho ho), Dame Trott, in Jack And The Beanstalk at York Theatre Royal. All pictures: S R Taylor Photography
YORK Theatre Royal’s pantomime partnership with Evolution Productions is one of gradual evolution, rather than revolution.
A first year under Covid social distancing in 2020 had daft sausage Josh Benson, fellow York actor Anna Soden’s Fairy and Robin Simpson’s dame leading the Travelling Pantomime cast to community centres and village halls and laid the foundations for the fruitful axis of Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution writer-producer Paul Hendy.
It is to be dearly hoped magician Benson’s time will come again in a York panto – you will have to head to Darlington Hippodrome to see his Muddles in Snow White this winter – but Forster and Hendy are in tandem once more and Simpson’s dame has become the Theatre Royal panto’s affable, quick-thinking, fleet-footed fulcrum, already signed up for Aladdin next winter.
Mia Overfield’s Jack with the giant Blunderbore…or Boris for short in Jack And The Beanstalk
Very welcome too is Strawberry Lion theatre-maker Soden’s first Theatre Royal panto appearance since those 2020 travels, cast as – pull the udder one – the groundbreaking character of Dave the Talking Cow, male by name, but very definitely female and a triple threat to boot as feisty bovine performer/hoofer, fabulous singer and trumpet player in the Walking On Sunshine finale.
Her startling version of I’m Just Dave, borrowed from this year’s biggest, pinkest movie, Barbie’s I’m Just Ken, is typical of the topical cultural antennae under Forster-Hendy’s control.
But let’s go back to the beginning, the only slow section of a show whose momentum builds and builds. Artichoke wand in hand, Nina Wadia’s cajoling Fairy Sugarsnap opens the curtain to a stage empty but for two tech team staff removing equipment. That’s novel!
Wanderful: Nina Wadia’s Fairy Sugarsnap
Commanding scenery to appear, with the powers of a Prospero, she introduces the audience to the wonders of pantomime, character by character, in the setting of Giggleswick, a funny name that does what it says on the tin: make you giggle, like Wadia herself.
For first timers, reflecting the new, younger age of the Theatre Royal pantomime post-Berwick Kaler, this is a gentle stepping stone, if a little laboured for the serial panto-goer. Plot is somewhat put on hold, but then it is little more than bean there, done that anyway, and enjoyment rises quickly.
Especially once James “Raven” Mackenzie’s blackbearded Scottish baddie Luke Backinanger (cue an Oasis lyric gag later on), Soden’s loquacious Friesian and Simpson’s Dame Trott make their entries. The latter attired in a fortified Clifford’s Tower dress beneath a balloon headgear, the first in a fashion parade of fabulous, off-the-wall dame costumes by Michael J Batchelor and Hazel Fall (complemented throughout by Ella Neal and Amy Chamberlain’s cast costumes and Helga Wood and Michelle Marden’s sets, especially for Cloudland).
CBeebies star James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger leading a zombie dance with the ensemble
Former chief executive Tom Bird was loathe to build up too many returnees after the years of Dame Berwick’s Infamous Five, but continuity combined with innovation is the way forward. Simpson’s knowing, ever game dame, so appealing to children and adults alike, is the key, here playing with a new toy, the Drone of Love, a piece of camera kit that lets Simpson home in on men in the audience as the same’s potential new beau/victim for the rest of the show.
This is the moment of lift-off for Jack And The Beanstalk, rather more than the misbehaving beanstalk-inflating transformation scene that has Simpson ad-libbing deliciously in surprise.
All the while Mia Overfield’s Jack – short for Jacqueline – Trott and her daft brother Billy (Matthew Curnier) grow into their roles, especially once Overfield moves more to the fore as the story demands and Curnier inserts himself in a bouncing ball (ostensibly a giant tomato), only his head sticking out, and somehow changes costume (in a new development on debuting this physical comedy last winter).
Robin Simpson’s Dame Trott, in the Clifford’s Tower frock designed by Hazel Fall, with Matthew Curnier’s Billy Trott, left, Mia Overfield’s Jack Trott and the ensemble
Continuity? The return of the Trolley of Puns, turning pantomime into puntomime, this time on the theme of dog breeds on picture boards, that is all the better for a Simpson slip-up. The inevitable ghost scene, but with a new finale, typical of Forster’s determination never to settle for the conventional.
Look out, here come the perennial digs at “desolate, desperate, depressed” Hull; political putdowns aplenty, for Braverman and Sunak, and Blunderbore the giant being re-named Boris, while Wadia adlibs a Cop28 quip when fluffing a line.
Then add Hayley Del Harrison’s choreography, as joyous for the ensemble of Villagers and Zombies as it is for the lead shakers and moovers (in the case of Dave the Talking Cow). On song too is Robert Louden’s musical direction, playful (listen out for the entry for EastEnders star Wadia), vibrant and varied, topped off by Mackenzie and Soden duetting on trumpet at the close.
All the right mooves: Anna Soden hoofing it as Dave the Talking Cow
Innovations? Dame Berwick introduced film to pantomime, and now Juliet Forster reinvigorates it with the aid of Ed Sunman’s video production wizardry, peaking with a send-up of boy band tropes (Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger is so called after being turned down for a boy band in younger days). By this point, Jack And The Beanstalk has become by far the best of the Evolution shows so far.
Luke Backinanger’s weather-making machine – for his plans for world domination via climate change – lends itself to revamping the dame’s water slapstick scene. Long may it rain, unexpected final flourish et al.
The surprises and delights keep coming, from the Giant being joined by a grumpy teenage son, Darren (who “hates sleeping”), to Simpson’s costume as a piano-playing Elton John, so clever that it requires a double-take before another fiesta of song title puns.
Giant steps are what you take: James Mackenzie’s Luke Backinanger and Anna Soden’s Dave the Talking Cow with Blunderbore and grouchy teenage son Darren
One more talking point: Dave the Talking Cow is not the only animal to tread the boards. Making his stage debut is a scene and headgear-stealing border collie by the name of Zeus – from god to dog in one step!
This three-time Young Kennel Club Crufts champion is trained by Anna Auster (whose mum goes to the same York art class as Forster’s husband, leading to a conversation about Zeus appearing in the show).
The dame and dog partnership – each negotiating an obstacle course with very differing results – is as unpredictable to Simpson, canine and audience alike. Best in Show winner, no question, in a panto that, like Jack’s beans, will grow and grow.
Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Only stools and farces: Matthew Curnier, left, James Mackenzie, Mia Overfield and Robin Simpson send up boy band tropes in With A Little Help From My Friends with more than a little help from Ed Sunman’s video wizardry
On the dark side: James Mackenzie, alias CBeebies’ Raven, is to play the villain in York Theatre Royal’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk
JAMES Mackenzie follows in the CBeebies’ footsteps of Maddie Moate last winter and Andy Day in 2021 in being signed up for the York Theatre Royal pantomime.
The Scottish actor and game show host, 44, will play the villainous Luke Backinanger in the “Fe-Fi-Fo-Fun family pantomime” Jack And The Beanstalkfrom December 8 2023 to January 7 2024.
Moate appeared as Tinkerbell in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan, preceded by Day’s Dandini in Cinderella.
Mackenzie will turn to the dark side in the fourth panto collaboration between the Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions, having played the immortal, leather-clad warrior in CBBC’s fantasy adventure game show Raven.
James Mackenzie: “Strutting his stuff as the bad boy of panto” at York Theatre Royal this winter
He was the original lead character in the multi-Bafta award-winning show Raven from 2002 to 2010. This mysterious warlord led young warriors on a quest to test their skills and win their heart’s desire in a show that garnered cult status, spanning 15 series filmed in far-flung exotic locations such as India. Its popularity saw it air from Canada to Australia and places aplenty in between.
Mackenzie has worked for many theatre companies, such as the National Theatre of Scotland, and has performed all over Britain in everything from Macbeth to the Proclaimers’ musical Sunshine On Leith. He has been a regular in BBC Scotland’s soap opera River City and made guest appearances in Still Game and Outlander.
Over the past few years, he has been introduced to a new CBeebies’ generation as James in Molly And Mack. He has been part of the CBeebies Christmas shows and performed on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe for CBeebies Shakespeare. Like most Scottish actors, he has appeared in Taggart more than once.
Theatre Royal creative director Juliet Forster, who will be directing Jack And The Beanstalk, says: “We are delighted to welcome James Mackenzie to the cast for this year’s panto. James is such a well-loved children’s TV personality and we can’t wait to see him strut his stuff as the bad boy of panto.”
Robin Simpson: Returning to the dame’s role in Jack And The Beanstalk
Mackenzie will perform alongside the already announced Robin Simpson in his fourth Theatre Royal panto. Simpson played the dame in The Travelling Pantomime in 2020, the British Pantomime Award-nominated Ugly Sister Manky in Cinderella in 2021 and Mrs Smee in All New Adventures of Peter Pan last winter.
He will be on dame duty in Jack And The Beanstalk, with further casting to be announced for a show that promises “stunning sets, lavish costumes, breath-taking special effects and lots of pantomime magic”.
Evolution’s co-founder Paul Hendy is writing the script once more, as he did for the past three pantos.
Tickets are “proving popular”, with a special family ticket offer available for all performances: £75 for bookings with three tickets, including at least one adult and one child, saving up to £52, or £100 for bookings with four tickets, including at least one adult and one child, saving up to £68. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tom Bird: Goodbye York Theatre Royal, hello Sheffield Theatres. Picture: Esme Mai
CHIEF executive Tom Bird is leaving York Theatre Royal after five years on February 3 to take up the equivalent post at Sheffield Theatres, England’s largest producing theatre complex outside London.
Head hunted for a post he “just couldn’t turn down”, he will migrate southwards to replace Dan Bates, who exited Sheffield last year after 13 years to become executive director of Bradford’s UK City of Culture 2025 programme.
From February 6, North Easterner (and Newcastle United fan) Tom he will be in charge of the South Yorkshire trio of Sheffield’s Crucible, Lyceum and Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse (formerly the Studio), working closely with artistic director Robert Hastie and interim chief exec Bookey Oshin, who will stay on as deputy CEO, and the senior team.
He leaves behind a York Theatre Royal where he has overseen an emphasis on community productions and the showcasing of York talent; the departure of innovative artistic director Damian Cruden after 22 years and Britain’s longest-running pantomime dame, Berwick Kaler, after 41; the promotion of Juliet Forster to creative director with a programming team, and new partnerships with Emma Rice’s Wise Children company (and in turn the National Theatre) and Evolution Productions for the pantomime’s new chapter.
Such change could be planned, but then there was Covid, a shadow cast from March 2020, one that not only shut down the theatre in lockdown but led to redundancies and later the loss of £250,000 takings in a flash when the Christmas and New Year week of Cinderella last winter fell foul to a glut of positive tests.
York Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird, centre, with creative director Juliet Forster and Evolution Productions director and pantomime writer Paul Hendy
“We were on to our fourth Cinderella by then,” recalls Tom. “It was impossible to continue. It couldn’t have happened in a worse week. Losing those performances was awful, even though we got going again for the last performances.”
Twelve months on, Tom bids farewell with the Theatre Royal in a healthy position. “There’s money in the bank; there’s a great team working here; the pantomime is reinvigorated; the programming is good; there are excellent partnerships in place. I’m really proud of everything we’ve done,” he says.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a mission as such as I guess I wanted to learn that mission as I went along, and I certainly think the Theatre Royal is in a strong position. The relationship with Arts Council England is so important, and to still be on the NPO scheme [for National Portfolio funding for £1.8 million for 2023-2026) is so important.
“If I have one regret – and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to run Sheffield – it is that it would have been nice to now have had two or three ‘normal’ years at York Theatre Royal as it’s such a wonderful place.”
Looking back on becoming the Theatre Royal’s executive director at 34 – he would later change the title to chief executive – after he and his family moved to York in December 2017, Tom says: “It was a massive change because my unofficial title at the Globe [Shakespeare’s Globe in London] was ‘Mr International’, producing a tour of Hamlet to 189 countries, but my personal circumstances had changed already.
A scene from The Coppergate Woman, York Theatre Royal’s 2022 community play. Picture: Jane Hobson
“We’d moved out to Kent; I’d been working as executive producer nationally and internationally, and though there was a lot of gloom about regional theatre at the time, I just thought, I’d love to get back north, to run a theatre.
“We’d co-produced plays to York, and there’s just something about the Theatre Royal, the building; the gorgeous auditorium.”
Nevertheless, Tom admits he was in for a surprise. “At first I thought, if you just transplanted London theatre here, it would work, but that was not the case,” he says. “York is a city of inequality, not the city that you would expect, and therefore not the theatre you would expect. You need to offer a cultural menu that caters for everyone. You have to fully fit in with the needs of the community, which is an exciting thing to do.
“After Damian left (in summer 2019), we wanted to make sure that we would be programming in a more collaborative way than we’d done before. I think there’s since been the same amount of co-producing of shows, but we also said we wanted to do ‘very Yorkshire’ productions, like The Coppergate Woman community play and David Reed’s world premiere of Guy Fawkes last autumn.
“We’ve created the programming team, led by Juliet Forster, with associate director John R Wilkinson and resident artists, that naturally produces a wide range of voices and makes sure everything is rigorously tested as to what we will put on that stage and why.”
Wise Children’s co-production of Wuthering Heights with the National Theatre and York Theatre Royal
Community theatre is crucial, Tom says: “It’s what audiences want. It’s absolutely what people in the community say they want to see. The audiences for our community plays are phenomenal. July’s production of CJ Sansom’s Sovereign is already on track to sell out. York wants theatre shows that tell stories of the city and we’ve always tried to do that in an experimental way, which leads to us taking risks.”
For all the weight of its history, York needs to be averse to standing still. “The city has to make sure it’s always being dynamic in its culture and outlook, otherwise it will take on the profile of being frozen in aspic,” warns Tom.
“That’s why we did a hippy-trippy, Covid-influenced Viking story [The Coppergate Woman] and a dark comedy version of Guy Fawkes that people didn’t expect. You have to be ambitious and surprising. That’s a word we use all the time: the reward for York audiences is to be pleasantly surprised.”
As for the changing of the old guard in the pantomime, Tom says: “I’m conscious that it’s what I’ll be remembered for here, which is a shame. Bringing down the curtain on something is not what I want to be remembered for, but, to an extent, whoever had my job at the time, was going to have to deal with it in some way.
“Maybe someone else would have taken a different route, or taken it earlier, but I worked on three of Berwick’s pantomimes, so it wasn’t as though I didn’t know what I was dealing with, but there was an issue coming down the road in ten to 15 years’ time , maybe earlier: family audiences were not coming to the panto in2017-2018, so what was going to happen in future years?
“I’d grown an affinity with the company in those three years, as everyone does; you realise the exceptional quality of performers like David Leonard, but in all conscience, I could not responsibly leave the situation as it was.
Berwick Kaler playing Molly Motley in his last York Theatre Royal pantomime, The Grand Old Dame Of York, in 2018-2019. He co-directed and wrote the next year’s show, Sleeping Beauty, his last involvement with the Theatre Royal panto after 41 years
“I got a lot of public criticism – and a lot of private criticism too – and really there was a lack of understanding of what I was trying to achieve in making the change, which may have been my fault as I could have it explained it earlier, but everything I said at the time still stands.
“The audiences were declining and there was no obvious way of turning it around with that product still in place, and I would say that the decision to go into a partnership with Evolution Productions has been proved to be the right one.
“The new pantomime is still growing and we know there’s still work to do, but we’re really happy with how it’s going.”
After such highlights as The Travelling Pantomime’s socially distanced performances to York neighbourhoods in the first winter of Covid, the Love Bites and Green Shoots showcases for York professional theatre-makers, the Wise Children/National Theatre/York Theatre Royal co-production of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, and Tom’s groundwork for Kyiv City Ballet’s first ever British visit in June, he moves to Sheffield in the year he turns 40.
In the words of Lord Kerslake, chair of Sheffield Theatres Trust board: “We have appointed a driven, experienced and creative leader who will help shape the next chapter of this world-class organisation.”
Just as Tom Bird has shaped York Theatre Royal’s future too.
Hook, line and singer: Paul Hawkyard’s Captain Hook in his big nuumber in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan. All pictures: Pamela Raith
York Theatre Royal and Evolution Productions present All New Adventures Of Peter Pan at York Theatre Royal. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
THE show title signifies changes afoot and freshness, but York Theatre Royal knows continuity is important too.
In the third year of the pantomime partnership with Evolution Productions – with a fourth year already rubber stamped for Jack And The Beanstalk next winter – Juliet Forster remains the director, Paul Hendy, the writer, and Hayley Del Harrison, the choreographer.
Children’s favourite Faye Campbell returns too, alongside the double-the-trouble double act of Paul Hawkyard and Robin Simpson, Cinderella’s award-nominated Ugly Sisters last year and now villainous Captain Hook and dame Mrs Smee respectively.
Ship-shape and bristling fashion: Robin Simpson’s dame, Mrs Smee
Having a CBeebies TV presenter to the fore last year in Andy Day proved a hit, and so science whizz Maddie Moate fronts the poster and flyer campaign this time as a feisty, fearless, even fractious Tinkerbell.
What’s new? The story for a start, still rooted in JM Barrie, but for the next generation. Wendy Darling is now Wendy Sweet (Theatre Royal newcomer Francesca Benton-Stace), mum to single-minded Elizabeth (Campbell), who craves her own flight to Neverland with Peter Pan (Jason Battersby). Elizabeth is more of a feminist, never attracted to Peter in the way Wendy was, but very much a dab hand at the “Lizzie Mother” role to the Lost Boys and Lost Girls.
There’s a new Newfoundland nanny dog in the house too, Nana being replaced by Minton, who leaves a mark on the show in more than one way. Naughty, Minton.
The father of the house, Hawkyard’s Mr Sweet, still turns into Captain Hook; Simpson’s dame makes a rather smaller leap for pantokind from home help Mrs Smee to Hook’s henchperson Mrs Smee. Likewise, Jonny Weldon, actor since childhood and social media comedy-sketch phenomenon since Covid lockdowns, switches from butler Mr Starkey to Hook’s other henchman, Starkey.
Balancing act: The Black Diamonds in acrobatic mode in All New Adventures Of Peter Pan
The double act becomes a mischief-making trio, Hawkyard’s dandy, intemperate Hook still ridiculously vainglorious but the butt of multiple jokes as shock-haired cheeky chappy Weedon and Simpson’s savvy dame conduct a pun fight to the last.
Oh, how writer Paul Hendy loves a pun, no matter how convoluted the set-up, and when it is combined with visual gags in a fish-name routine, reprising the magazine-title routine from 2020’s Travelling Pantomime, the jokes really get their skates on, faster, funnier, fishier.
Act One hits its stride amid the mayhem of Hawkyard, Simpson and Weldon struggling to manoeuvre a boat across the stage, dangerously close to the orchestra pit, reducing fourth occupant Moate’s to fits of laughter on the stern. This scene, already ripe for improvisation, will grow ever more chaotic as the run progresses.
Moate’s beaming Tinkerbell had made her first entry from above, flying high over the stage. Soon Battersby’s Pan, a magical, mysterious yet damaged perennial child, will lead Campbell’s Elizabeth across the London night sky to a duet of Take That’s Rule The World and onwards to Neverland in a gorgeous video projection by Dr Andy.
Drop in. centre: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell makes her entry as Faye Campbell’s Elizabeth and Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan look on
Later, in Act Two, Simpson’s Mrs Smee will emerge from on high too to the accompaniment of the James Bond theme, now playing flipper-clad Caroline Bond on a hoist that stubbornly refuses to touch the ground despite Simpson’s increasingly desperate pleas. Comic timing is exquisite here, and again, for all Simpson’s self-sacrificing physical discomfort, this scene is sure to expand.
Hendy and director Juliet Forster love the magic of pantomime as much as the comic mayhem rendered by haughty Hawkyard and co. This applies equally to Helga Wood, Michelle Marden and Stuart Relph’s set design, for London house, island and aboard the Jolly Roger, and to Harrison’s fizzing and fun choreography, and they are never happier than when magic and mirth elide in the Mermaids, beautiful and shimmering at first, but then turning into gossipy fish wives.
Benton-Stace’s scene-stealing Myrtle the Mermaid gives the outstanding vocal performance under Benjamin Dovey’s musical direction, run close by Hawkyard’s riotous Guns N’ Roses number, Neil Morgan guitar solo et al.
Cultural references play their part, from departing Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock to departing Dr Who Jodie Whittaker; Moate is granted a brief science bit about the sun; Campbell’s Elizabeth turns on the girl power and dance captain Emily Taylor drives on her troupe of Lost Boys and Girls with boundless energy.
Jonny Weldon’s Starkey, piratical mischief maker in chief
Big, big cheers go to the show’s speciality act, East African acrobats Teddy, Muba and Mohamed, alias The Black Diamonds, who defy the compact space to pull off dazzling feats of athleticism.
“All New” these adventures may be, but the increasingly tedious Sweet Caroline is an unimaginative choice for the song-sheet singalong. Not so good, so good, alas. Far better is the impact of Duncan Woodruff’s fight direction for Hook’s clashes with magic-powered fairy Tinkerbell, Elizabeth and Pan alike.
Michael J Batchelor and Joey Arthurs’ beautiful but bonkers costumes for Simpson’s dame keep topping the last one, and it is lovely to see the Theatre Royal walkdown scene in full pomp once more in gold, cream and white.
Something of the darkness of Barrie’s original story is lost in pursuit of pantomime frolics, but York Theatre Royal and Evolution unquestionably have found their groove, their own schtick, that appeals to children and adults alike.Simpson’s convivial dame is already confirmed for next year, another sign of continuity in this new age for the Theatre Royal pantomime.
“Lizzie Mother’s” storytelling sit-down: Maddie Moate’s Tinkerbell, left, and the Lost Boys and Girls listen to Faye Campbell’s Elizabeth. Jason Battersby’s Peter Pan prefers to keep watch
