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 turn out to be an eagerly awaited staple within the West Finish’s calendar. It runs from December 7 by means of 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 guide seats.
“That’s larger than any 02 live performance and larger than every other West Finish present,” boasted Michael Harrison, who directs and writes the Palladium theatrics in collaboration with Clary.
London Palladium. Photograph by Baz Bamigboye/Deadline.
This 12 months’s present, produced by Crossroads Pantomimes, of which Harrison is chief government and David Ian is chairman, presents a solid of regulars and newcomers.
Returning are Paul Zerdin (Muppet Treasure Island) and Nigel Havers (Chariots of Hearth), 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 Wanogho-Maud, standing tall at over six foot, debuts as Little John. I’ve been a fan of Wanogho-Maud’s ever since I noticed him as Younger Simba in The Lion King, which remains to be taking part in to sturdy homes on the Lyceum. Extra just lately, the actor wowed as Ben E. King and Rudy Lewis in The Drifters Lady, which starred Beverley Knight .
Courtesy Crossroads Pantomimes.
Harrison advised 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 all the time type of a job on the facet wanting in, regardless that the present’s all the time about him.”
Courtesy Crossroads Pantomimes.
The panto king shared that he thought it might 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 stated.
“I stated, ”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.Ok., due to her Cruising and different television journey reveals, together with her Jane and Buddies selection present and twenty years, ending in 2023, as a presenter on Unfastened Ladies. Not too long ago, she stopped by on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs the World.
Jane McDonald. Photograph courtesy Jane McDonald.
Harrison advised me that Clary relishes the concept of taking part in Robin Hood, although he gained’t be as strapping as those that have performed the outlaw on the massive display. I’m pondering 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 will probably be getting Al-A-Dale to do a whole lot of the soiled work on this manufacturing.
“I believe Alan-A-Dale could be the one to fireside the bow and arrow.”
Harrison acknowledged that a part of the Palladium pantomime’s enchantment is its familiarity, although he admitted that “There’s all the time the criticism that it’s all the time the identical. Nicely, I believe individuals need the identical, but additionally a bit of bit completely different, and this 12 months’s going to be a bit of bit completely 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 enormous creations being cooked up in the intervening time, all linked to Sherwood and the forest,” Harrison promised.
Julian Clary in Jack and the Beanstalk,London Palladium 2022. Photograph by Paul Coltas.
Hesitating a second earlier than asking, however I puzzled 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 could take as much as three dressers to get him into a fancy dress. These outfits are huge set items.”
Julian Clary in Goldilocks, London Palladium 2019. Photograph by Paul Coltas.
Not that Clary’s complaining.
With a wink, Harrison advised me that Clary’s “wanting ahead to working along with his Merry Males.”
Julian Clary’s in final 12 months’s Palladium panto Peter Pan. Photograph by Paul Coltas.
My social media’s filled with folks searching for to know the title of this 12 months’s Palladium pantomime.
Harrison noticed that “Audiences are type of like one other solid member, they usually come alongside within the spirit of it, which is why I believe 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. Nevertheless, it brought on a commotion on the first efficiency, when the inventive group couldn’t stand of their common 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 Hi there,Dolly! opening on the Palladium for a restricted run from July 6 by means of 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, contemporary from final weekend’s wins on the Olivier Awards on the Royal Albert Corridor. The present gained a complete of seven Olivier Awards, together with finest 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 shaped by Lloyd Webber and Harrison to additional exploit the composer’s oeuvre.
A revival of Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Specific, directed by Luke Sheppard, can also be being overseen by Harrison. Sheppard’s latest productions embody Dwell Support musical Simply For One Day, and The Little Huge Issues, which noticed Amy Trigg win the most effective supporting actress in a musical Olivier Award.
