The Xmas pantos are being cancelled

[TBHno]

1st world problem , I know...

My local theatre has just cancelled their Xmas panto

Panto is something I look forward to every Christmas. As a kid, I even performed in them a few times. Seeing one in the run-up to xmas is a big part of the hype for me. Seeing the kids get all dressed up and excited is great too.

It's one of those things that has to be live because the participation is a big part of it.

Xmas just won't be the same.

@mnahmnah damn you, you beat me to it

I loathe them and refuse to sit through one but sorry for people who’ll lose money.

We had tickets to see Frozen in the west end on xmas eve. All cancelled.
It sucks.

@MagicSummer honestly comments like that are just patronising and getting really tedious. I know what Christmas is about but I actually enjoy going to Christmas parties and taking DS to the panto and other things.

@MagicSummer

In a way, I think it will be a good thing to go back to a simpler, more traditional Christmas this year. There won't be office parties, huge get-togethers or pantomimes, or huge piles of plastic tat given to kids who look at it once and then throw away. Maybe people could think about what Christmas is really about and it is a religious festival, whether you like it or not (and no, I am not religious!).

Maybe some of us don't want a shit christmas after such a shitty year.

In a way, I think it will be a good thing to go back to a simpler, more traditional Christmas this year. There won't be office parties, huge get-togethers or pantomimes, or huge piles of plastic tat given to kids who look at it once and then throw away. Maybe people could think about what Christmas is really about and it is a religious festival, whether you like it or not (and no, I am not religious!).

That would be all well and good if people had purposefully chosen to have a pared back Christmas, and for some who can wfh, or finances arent affected they may well enjoy that. However to have that forced upon you and potentially have thousands of people for whom christmas is busy and their main earning period throughout the year, they may not be as enthusiastic

@MagicSummer

In a way, I think it will be a good thing to go back to a simpler, more traditional Christmas this year. There won't be office parties, huge get-togethers or pantomimes, or huge piles of plastic tat given to kids who look at it once and then throw away. Maybe people could think about what Christmas is really about and it is a religious festival, whether you like it or not (and no, I am not religious!).

Oh bore off. We don’t buy ‘huge piles of plastic tat’ for Christmas. Just a few, well thought out gifts. We also like big gatherings with family and friends and Christmas parties, because they’re fun. Fun, parties and gathering with family and friends is what Christmas is about for us.

some prick from the local radio station appropriating womanhood

@NerrSnerr if you bothered to read I have already covered that point , why not comment on what the OP was actually about rather than nit picking my post .

@MagicSummer

In a way, I think it will be a good thing to go back to a simpler, more traditional Christmas this year. There won't be office parties, huge get-togethers or pantomimes, or huge piles of plastic tat given to kids who look at it once and then throw away. Maybe people could think about what Christmas is really about and it is a religious festival, whether you like it or not (and no, I am not religious!).

I'm sure the fact it'll be more traditional will be such a comfort when we can't have our annual big family christmas (we usually have 20-28 from Christmas eve to the 27th) for the first time, which is also going to be the first Christmas since losing FIL.

Christmas for many people is about family and time together and that's going to be missing for a lot this year.

It’s such a shame. A lot of theatres rely on panto income to get through the rest of the year! They really don’t make all that much on tickets for any shows, once everyone involved has been paid.

Theatre and the arts are a hugely successful industry for Britain The West End is one of the best places to see theatre in the world, and think what you like about Andrew Lloyd Webber, he's hugely profitable for our country, as of course is Shakespeare and the RSC.

If pantos can't run, local theatres will close. If local theatres close, touring companies will close. (Many probably already have). Unless the government really pulls its finger out, London theatres will close too. (Their overheads will be huge). That's going to be a deeply-felt loss for local communities, local artists, and our cultural industry in general.

Think about what Britain is known for nowadays. We aren't an empire any more. We aren't an industrial nation. But we have the huge gift of the English language, and a culture and education steeped in a heritage of storytelling. We're famous for Harry Potter and Romeo and Juliet, Doctor Who and The Importance of Being Earnest.

If the theatre industry falls, so will that cultural capital. I have a friend who likes to blame our government's Covid failures on the fact that they're arts graduates, not scientists. I hope to God that means they're going to do something about it.

I'm not a big fan of panto, but this isn't good news at all. A lot of actors - not big name ones, either - and stage school performers depend on panto season for work. It also means theatres losing money.

Panto may not be your preferred form of entertainment, but watch out because it will be the thing that you love - be that festivals, ballet darts or bingo next!

Exactly this. I'm not a panto fan, but I love theatre and live music, and it's the popular shows like this that keep local theatres open and able to offer plays, concerts, comedy, kids' shows, dance, etc. It's so sad if this means more closures and job losses.

Pantos are the cash cows which enable theatres to operate for the remaining ten months of the year. It doesn’t matter at all whether you like panto: many theatres are going to fold and they will never reopen. It is an absolute tragedy.

Tragic for all the people who work in them. They also bring in money for theatres and support them for the whole year.

Panto and Xmas shows are a huge industry and the economic and cultural fall-out from this for the wider creative, performance, leisure and catering industries will be immense. Like a butterfly effect.

That's the discussion that needs having, not whether individuals personally approve of Xmas or panto tropes or not.

So many people are so unbearably snobby about panto.

It is many people’s introduction to live theatre. It is some people’s only exposure to live theatre. Right now it is the canary in the coal mine for an industry which is about to die, taking thousands of jobs with it.

It’s really worrying because so many theatres rely on panto to subsidise the rest of the year.

@JamieLeeCurtains

Panto and Xmas shows are a huge industry and the economic and cultural fall-out from this for the wider creative, performance, leisure and catering industries will be immense. Like a butterfly effect.

That's the discussion that needs having, not whether individuals personally approve of Xmas or panto tropes or not.

Having said that, some prick from the local radio station appropriating womanhood was fucking funny

@MagicSummer It's all very well saying that, but what if people aren't able to visit their families for Christmas? My mum's birthday is on Christmas Day so I always spend it with her, and I'm dreading the thought of not being able to see her or my stepfamily as I'm in the north and they're in the south.

So what?

We have been to a non-Panto Christmas show every year since DS was 4, he's now 8. We love it, it's really well done. Fingers crossed it comes back next year.

I work in a theatre, it is not my main source of income but panto helps me greatly with Christmas. I love the work and I am heartbroken for cast and crew for whom it is their livelihood. I fear for the future of the theatre.

@jessstan2

So what?

Do you like theatre at all?