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unusual facts about Pantomime


C M Leumane

The Lambton Worm is an old folk tale, similar to the tale of Saint George and the Dragon, going back centuries which was turned into a children’s Pantomime.


Abanazer

He is the pantomime villain and has been played over the years by actors such as Martin Clunes (2000), and Clive Mantle who was Abanazer in 64 shows over the Christmas and New Year period of 2007 and 2008 at the Theatre Royal in Bath.

Antony Dunn

In 2006 he contributed lyrics to Mark Ravenhill's pantomime, Dick Whittington and His Cat (Barbican, London).

Charles Deburau

After his father's death in 1846, Charles kept alive his pantomimic legacy, first in Paris, at the Théâtre des Funambules, and then, beginning in the late 1850s, at theaters in Bordeaux and Marseille.

Chris Fountain

Fountain played the title role in the pantomime Aladdin at the Manchester Opera House over the Christmas/New Year period of 2009/10.

Cyril the Swan

Cyril appeared as the pet of the Emperor of China, in a British pantomime of Aladdin.

Don Gilet

In 2010, he appeared as Abanazar in the Churchill Theatre Bromley's Christmas pantomime Aladdin alongside Melinda Messenger.

Elaine C. Smith

For many years she was a regular in pantomime at the Kings' Theatre, Glasgow, starring alongside Gerard Kelly in performances such as Aladdin, Mother Goose and Sleeping Beauty.

During Christmas 2009, Smith played Fairy Godmother in the pantomime Cinderella in Aberdeen and returned there over Christmas 2010 to play the Evil Queen Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty.

Emmie Owen

She left the company to appear in a Christmas pantomime in Birmingham, returning to tour with the company in 1892 as Cynthia in The Vicar of Bray and as Polly in the companion piece, Captain Billy.

Ernie Coombs

After retirement, Coombs continued to work as an entertainer, playing roles in Ross Petty's Christmas pantomimes of Peter Pan, Cinderella, and Aladdin, and acted as a spokesman for children's charities.

Glen Brown

He formed two record labels; Pantomime (or Pantomine), and South East Music, and produced tracks by U Roy, Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth, I-Roy, Prince Jazzbo, Johnny Clarke, Lloyd Parks, and Little Roy.

Hamilton Lee

At various points in the 1980s, Lee drummed for various theatre projects by the comedy/drama/"horror-panto" troupe Count of Three in both London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including versions of The Beggar's Opera, Titus Andronicus and Dr Calamari's Music Hall of the Macabre.

Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren

Gilbert's pantomime opened on the same night as rival shows at the Drury Lane Theatre, Covent Garden, Sadler's Wells, and eight other London theatres.

Harpocrates

From the 1920s through the 1950s, Harpo Marx performed pantomime and wore either a curly red or curly blonde wig in character.

Helen Noble

In the 2005-06 pantomime season she appeared as Princess Apricot Crumble in Jack & the Beanstalk at Theatre Royal, Plymouth.

Jane McCrea

In Philadelphia in 1799 Ricketts' Circus performed "The Death of Miss McCrea", a pantomime co-written by John Durang.

Jeanne Quinault

Over a period of several months beginning in December 1731, Jeanne joined with a group of seven other friends to meet regularly and produce light-hearted, often parodic and satirical, theatrical entertainments, which they called lazzis, a term from the Commedia dell'arte meaning comic pantomime.

John Evan

During concerts, Evan's wildly rendered pantomime gestures would conjure visions for audiences of a cross between Harpo Marx and The Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (sans the hat).

John Pardoe

In 1978, John Pardoe MP played the fairy-tale Liberal prime minister in BBC Radio 4's Christmas Pantomime, Black Cinderella Two Goes East, on the basis that you only get Liberal prime ministers in fairy-tales.

John Savident

He was one of the readers on the BBC's online Advent Calendar in December 2006 and starred in the 2006 pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the henchman at Manchester Opera House, appearing alongside Suranne Jones, Justin Moorhouse, and the all-star seven dwarves including Warwick Davis.

Karen Dunbar

Over Christmas 2007, Dunbar made her first appearance in pantomime, at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, playing Nanny Begood in Sleeping Beauty.

Malcolm Boyden

Boyden has become a pantomime regular making his debut in 1997 when he played alongside Frank Bruno and Karl Howman in Goldilocks and the Three Bears at Birmingham’s Hippodrome Theatre.

Malcolm became a pantomime dame, in 2000 when he took on the role of Mother Goose at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre.

Malcolm McFee

McFee died suddenly on 18 November 2001 at the age of 52 at his home in Braintree, Essex, shortly before he was due to appear as a dame in a pantomime of Beauty and the Beast at the Elgiva Theatre in Chesham.

Melissa Walton

As an amateur actress, Walton appeared in pantomime at Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, was a member of the Coventry youth group YOG and attended Three Spires Dance School.

Mike Fischetti

From December 2009 to January 2010 he appeared in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the Malvern Theatre, alongside Colin Baker and Sarah Thomas.

New Theatre Oxford

Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits played in pantomime at the New Theatre in the early 1970s together with Peter Glaze as the Dame.

Pantomime horse

The episode also features a pantomime goose and a pantomime dame Princess Margaret, which later appeared in the video for the George Harrison song "Crackerbox Palace".

Pantomime horses feature prominently in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus titled "Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror".

In the 1984 comedy Top Secret!, a real bull attempts to copulate with a pantomime cow with devastating consequences for the actor inhabiting the rear of the two-piece costume.

Paul Legrand

After enjoying some success with his Pierrot, Murderer of his Wife (1881), a pantomime in which a disillusioned Pierrot tickles Columbine to death, the young Paul Margueritte interviewed Legrand, now an aging artist whose triumphs at the Folies lay far behind him.

Pierre Gardel

He was influenced by Noverre's reforms, although Gardel didn't see the need to limit technique when including pantomime.

Pussy in Boots

Mike Reid was already starring as Frank Butcher in the BBC television soap opera EastEnders when he starred in the pantomime, although he left the soap later in the year.

Pussy in Boots is a cult 1994 VHS adult pantomime starring stand-up comedian and EastEnders actor Mike Reid, with co-stars Barbara Windsor and John Altman, as well as Coronation Street actress Lynne Perrie.

Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent

The theatre is also known for its annual pantomime, frequently starring local celebrity Jonathan Wilkes.

Ron Shand

Was in the Tivoli circuit for many years playing in revue and pantomime, before joining the J. C. Williamson theatre company for several seasons in musical comedy.

Samantha Dorrance

Sam has recently played the part of Zoe in BBC One program Doctors which will be aired early next year and will be playing Snow White in Pantomime this December at The Middleton Arena in Manchester.

Stefan Booth

Booth appeared in pantomime at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne, East Sussex from 12 December 2008 to 11 January 2009 in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs starring as the Prince, alongside one of the finalists from the BBC I'd Do Anything series, Niamh Perry.

Steve McFadden

He has also appeared in pantomime in 2010/11 at the High Wycombe Swan theatre in Peter Pan playing Captain Hook.

Una McLean

She starred in Jack and the Beanstalk alongside Jimmy Logan in his last pantomime appearance at King's Theatre, Glasgow as Wondergran, a show that also featured Alyson McInnes, John Ramage, and Euan McIver.

Vokes family

Early in their career, at the Lyceum Theatre, London, they danced in W. S. Gilbert's pantomime, Harlequin Cock Robin and Jenny Wren.

Wendy Turner Webster

Whilst playing Maid Marian in pantomime Turner-Webster fell in love with actor Gary Webster, who starred in Family Affairs.

When Louis Met...

He has a flashy car, an ex-model wife, a large home and a role in Crewe's pantomime.

William Reeve

Some of his other popular later works included a melodrama, The Purse (1794), a Robin Hood pantomime, Merry Sherwood (1795) (especially the drinking song I am a friar of orders grey) and a comic opera, The Cabinet (1803).

William Tripp

Jack Tripp (William John Charles Spencer Tripp) (1922–2005), British comedian and pantomime artist

Willie Edouin

He soon appeared with Colville's Folly Company, an American farce-comedy troupe, and then with E. E. Rice's Surprise Party in pantomimes such as Babes in the Woods, a version of The Lost Children and Horrors.


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