EXCLUSIVE: Comic and author Julian Clary (Julian Clary: Dwell – Lord of the Mince) will play the title function on this festive season’s London Palladium pantomime Robin Hood, with singer and journey present presenter Jane McDonald (Cruising with Jane McDonald) topping the invoice as Maid Marion.
The annual Palladium present, now in its ninth consecutive season, has change into an eagerly awaited staple within the West Finish’s calendar. It runs from December 7 via January 12, 2025. Precedence reserving opens 10 AM (GMT) April 25.
Final 12 months’s manufacturing, Peter Pan, with comedy legend Jennifer Saunders (Completely Fabulous, French and Saunders) making her pantomime debut as Captain Hook, and with Clary taking part in Seaman Smee, was a sold-out success, taking part in 56 performances -often two a day – to an viewers of greater than 123,000 on the 2,200 capability selection home.
When tickets went on sale, there was a second when 90,000 individuals had been within the queue, ready their flip to e-book seats.
“That’s greater than any 02 live performance and greater than some other West Finish present,” boasted Michael Harrison, who directs and writes the Palladium theatrics in collaboration with Clary.
This 12 months’s present, produced by Crossroads Pantomimes, of which Harrison is chief govt and David Ian is chairman, presents a forged of regulars and newcomers.
Returning are Paul Zerdin (Muppet Treasure Island) and Nigel Havers (Chariots of Fireplace), this 12 months taking part in Will Scarlet and Friar Tuck.
Marisha Wallace, who appeared in Man Ritchie’s Aladdin, was an Olivier award nominee for her Adelaide in Nicholas Hytner’s superb revival of Guys & Dolls on the Bridge Theatre. She makes her panto bow because the present’s baddie, the Sheriff of Nottingham. West Finish audiences had been launched to her when she performed Effie in Dreamgirls on the Savoy Theatre.
Charlie Stemp, coming off his third Olivier award nomination this 12 months for Loopy for You, returns to the Palladium as Alan-A-Dale. Previous to Loopy for You, Stemp was nominated for Cameron Waterproof coat’s productions of Half A Sixpence and Disney’s Mary Poppins. From June 4, Stemp joins Adrian Dunbar (Line of Obligation) and Broadway’s Stephanie J. Block (Into The Woods) in director Bartlett Sher’s manufacturing of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate on the Barbican.
Comedian artist Rob Madge (My Son’s A Queer (However What Can You Do?), no stranger to pantomime antics on the Palladium, returns because the Spirit of Sherwood.
Tosh Wanoghu-Maud, standing tall at over six foot, debuts as Little John. I’ve been a fan of Wanogh-Maud’s ever since I noticed him as Younger Simba in The Lion King, which continues to be taking part in to robust homes on the Lyceum. Extra lately, the actor wowed as Ben E. King and Rudy Lewis in The Drifters Woman, which starred Beverley Knight .
Harrison instructed me that he wished to have a 12 months the place Clary may play the title function, “As a result of clearly, he’s central to all of it. However he by no means performs the primary function. It’s at all times sort of a task on the facet wanting in, despite the fact that the present’s at all times about him.”
The panto king shared that he thought it will be humorous to have Robin Hood performed by the famously camp Clary, and pair him with McDonald. The performer kicks off her With All My Love live performance tour at Blackpool Opera Home on October 11.
“Jane leapt on the likelihood,” Harrison mentioned.
“I mentioned, ”Look, are you able to think about you and Julian Clary being in love?!” Speak about Robin Hood’s camp.”
McDonald has an infinite following within the U.Okay., due to her Cruising and different television journey reveals, together with her Jane and Associates selection present and twenty years, ending in 2023, as a presenter on Free Girls. Just lately, she stopped by on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World.
Harrison instructed me that Clary relishes the thought of taking part in Robin Hood, although he received’t be as strapping as those that have performed the outlaw on the massive display screen. I’m considering of Kevin Costner in Prince of Thieves, Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott’s gritty Robin Hood, and Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marion, taking part in the well-known lovers of their twilight. Tv’s first Robin Hood was Richard Greene in The Adventures of Robin Hood. It was in re-run by the point I caught up with it throughout my childhood. And let’s not neglect Errol Flynn, with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, dashing about in Michael Curtis’s 1938 swashbuckler, The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Harrison laughed, then shook his head. “I’ve a humorous feeling Julian’s Robin Hood might be getting Al-A-Dale to do a whole lot of the soiled work on this manufacturing.
“I feel Alan-A-Dale is likely to be the one to fireplace the bow and arrow.”
Harrison acknowledged that a part of the Palladium pantomime’s attraction is its familiarity, although he admitted that “There’s at all times the criticism that it’s at all times the identical. Nicely, I feel individuals need the identical, but in addition somewhat bit totally different, and this 12 months’s going to be somewhat bit totally different.”
Every year, award-winning designer Hugh Durrant, in session with Clary, makes an attempt to outdo the earlier 12 months’s gloriously outlandish costumes. “There are large creations being cooked up for the time being, all linked to Sherwood and the forest,” Harrison promised.
Hesitating a second earlier than asking, however I questioned whether or not Clary can be carrying a frock or tunic and tights?
“He’ll be within the Robin Hood gear, however all on a gargantuan scale,” Harrison assured.
He famous that Clary’s doing his present onstage, “after which goes offstage within the wings and it’s one other manufacturing with the costumes. Typically, it will possibly take as much as three dressers to get him into a dressing up. These outfits are large set items.”
Not that Clary’s complaining.
With a wink, Harrison instructed me that Clary’s “wanting ahead to working along with his Merry Males.”
My social media’s full of people looking for to know the title of this 12 months’s Palladium pantomime.
Harrison noticed that “Audiences are sort of like one other forged member, they usually come alongside within the spirit of it, which is why I feel we get away with issues that, maybe ordinarily, you wouldn’t.“
Although we each loath the phrase ‘woke’, Harrison agreed that the Palladium pantomime “is a woke-free zone.”
The clamor for tickets final 12 months was such that Harrison, in settlement with Palladium proprietor Andrew Lloyd Webber, determined to permit standing areas on the rear of the Palladium’s stalls. Nonetheless, it prompted a commotion on the first efficiency, when the inventive workforce couldn’t stand of their traditional spots as a result of most people had been there.
“If solely we had 5 extra rows,” Harrison mused in jest.
The producer has a packed season, with Imelda Staunton’s flip in Hey,Dolly! opening on the Palladium for a restricted run from July 6 via September 14, and the switch to Broadway of Sundown Boulevard, previewing on the St. James Theatre from September 28, starring Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis, recent from final weekend’s wins on the Olivier Awards on the Royal Albert Corridor. The present received a complete of seven Olivier Awards, together with greatest musical revival for Lloyd Webber, Don Black, Christopher Hampton, director Jamie Lloyd’s The Jamie Lloyd Firm, Adam Speers and the Ambassador Theatre Group, and Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, the corporate fashioned by Lloyd Webber and Harrison to additional exploit the composer’s oeuvre.
A revival of Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Categorical, directed by Luke Sheppard, can be being overseen by Harrison. Sheppard’s current productions embrace Dwell Help musical Simply For One Day, and The Little Large Issues, which noticed Amy Trigg win the very best supporting actress in a musical Olivier Award.