A little while ago, I did a round up of panto's on around the country this festive period. I personally LOVE a pantomime, and have made it our family tradition, having taken Ella every year since she was 4. Any younger, and she'd have been too scared (this is the kid who wanted to leave the cinema during Paddington as she was sure the bad lady was going to kill him).
And it's not too late to go and see one, oh no it's not, as many pantomimes are on until the end of January.
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| What can be more magic than a family panto? |
Last year, being stuck in Birmingham Children's Hospital with a poorly Oliver, we decided to have an afternoon out and headed to Birmingham Hippodrome to see Jack & The Beanstalk. Until then, we'd just watched our local theatre's performances, so being in a beautiful big theatre, watching Peter from Corrie, Jane McDonald, Duncan James etc was fabulous.
It really is fun for all the family with jokes for the kids, and the grown ups too. Matt Slack played Silly Billy and Ella thought he was the best, simply because he was so silly!
After a tragic start to the year and losing our little dude, we knew we needed to make it a Christmas to remember, and so in May (yes, really) we saw the tickets were on sale and bought five so we could also take Mr J's mum and stepdad. It's not surprising that a lot of the tickets for the top dates were already selling out within the first day of being on sale.
And so on Boxing Day off we set to Birmingham. After a nightmare finding a parking space, we finally got there, and instantly our parking rage was taken away by Julian Clary and his very cheeky innuendos! Matt Slack starred again, this time as Wishy Washy, where he had the audience in stitches with his Money Supermarket routine and just generally being hilarious. Despite clearly losing his voice, the show indeed did go on. Lee Mead played Aladdin, and Marti Pellow as the evil Abanazar (boooooooooo).
The show even included a 3D section, where the audience donned their 3D glasses and the kids squealed and screamed as we went on a journey on the magic carpet.
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| Rocking the 3D specs |
We all had a fantastic afternoon out with Nanny and Grandad singing the show's praises all the way home. Even bump seemed to enjoy it, she was certainly kicking lots during the songs!
Birmingham Hippodrome's pantomime is run by Qdos Entertainment who seem to have some of the best line ups for panto's across the country. Seeing as we live an hour away from Birmingham we might have to check out their Northampton panto next year as I'm sure it'll be every bit as good.... Nanny can babysit though!
