Preview: The Snow Queen, Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London
by SHEEDA JAMSHEED for the Independent
published: December 4, 2006

The Hans Christian Andersen tale The Snow Queen is being given in pantomime at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. The theatre is known for its multicultural audience and friendly environment, so this classic tale with a twist is in good hands.

Are you coming or going, then?
by PATRICIA NICOL for the Sunday Times
published: December 10, 2006

It was an inspired idea to commission Mark Ravenhill to write a panto. Not just because he has established a strong line in “He’s behind you” visual gags; no, more because, with Shopping and ****ing and Mother Clap’s Molly House, he swaggered to fame with a brave brand of ribald song-and-dance total theatre, peopled by cross-dressing grotesques and nodding to the carnivalesque ideas that underpin panto.

Cinderella
by MICHAEL BILLINGTON for the Guardian
published: December 11, 2006

Hackney pantos, written and directed by Susie McKenna, have acquired a legendary reputation. And, even if I wasn't blown away by this year's Cinderella, I admired its multiculturalism and shrewd mix of tradition and innovation. It also has the great advantage of being staged in the most beautiful theatre in London.

McKenna's chief novelty is that she sets the story of the dysfunctional family Hardup in the roaring 1920s: this gives a flapper feel to the female costumes and gets away from fairytale princes in wrinkled tights.

Cinderella
by ROBERT DAWSON SCOTT for the Times
published: December 12, 2006

Stewart and Gray have headlined the Edinburgh show for the past seven years and they have got it down to a fine, knowing art. It may be produced by Qdos, the English panto specialists, and written and directed by Paul Elliot, the panto doyen, but Stewart in particular contributes masses of additional material. The result is a winning combination; all the razzmatazz of a big show, the lasers and the Varilites and the novelty acts (white doves and white Shetland ponies for the coach) mixed with enough local references to make it feel that it belongs to the city.

Cinderella
by MARK FISHER for the Guardian
published: December 14, 2006

With its references to the Sugababes and Big Brother, there is much about this lavish spectacular that would have flummoxed the audience of 1906. But there is much also with which they would be quite at home, from the winning ways of Allan Stewart and Andy Gray - one of the great panto pairings - to the miniature Shetland ponies graced, heart-stoppingly, by a flock of white doves flying down from the dress circle.

Cinderella
by JEREMY KINGSTON for the Times
published: December 19, 2006

The Empire has a reputation for presenting the best pantos in London and this time Hackney’s Pantoland is Hackney itself. Cinderella is abducted to Lee Valley Wood, and the wicked stepmother gives herself airs because she hails from Bethnal on the Green. If it’s an insult to call the horse Clapton, the fault is redeemed by transforming it into an impressively airworthy Pegasus to take the heroine off to the palace ball.

Cinderella
by SAM MARLOWE for the Times
published: December 21, 2006

If you’re after a traditional panto with plenty of sparkle, pop-up picturebook sets and a dash of gentle naughtiness this Christmas, this production, directed by Bonnie Lythgoe, is for you. From the moment it begins, with a toe-tapping rendition of the Scissor Sisters’ I Don’t Feel Like Dancing (with lyrics suitably tweaked for maximum positivity — let’s just say that Joanna Kirkland’s pretty Cinders can’t wait to cut a rug), this is unmistakably a slick and shiny operation.

Panto: Oh yes it is an art form!
by MICHAEIL COVENEY for the Independent
published: 21 December 2006

What these notable thespians really meant was that they were going to be appearing in a pantomime (to make lots of money) and therefore it must be seen to be respectable and they must be doing the genre a big favour. To which the only possible response is, oh, no, it isn't, and oh, no, they weren't. The argument arose because a producing hegemony - Qdos, the purveyor of stars and glitter to the provinces these many years - was challenged by the very company, First Family Entertainment, a wing of the Ambassador Theatre Group, for which it supplied the "product". FFE played the "we're-going-to-make-pantomime-great-again" card (it employed Callow, Hampshire and Wilson), but in the end, it was just the same dear old stuff.

Confessions of a part-time panto actor
by SIMON CRUMP for the Guardian
published: December 22, 2006

My role in the Forestry Commission panto in the Lake District was small, but I like to think that in later years, when the books get written, it will be recognised as being a pivotal role that was crucial to the integrity of the piece. And I only volunteered to play the role of Crumplestiltskin to prove to the foresters that their writer-in-residence was not too stuck-up to join in the festive fun.

Sucked into the subconscious
by CLIFFORD BISHOP for the Sunday Times
published: December 31, 2006

Given the extraordinary, erotic interpretations he gave to innocent-seeming objects such as combs and umbrellas, it beggars the imagination to consider what Sigmund Freud might have thought of hand puppets.