Ideas To Update The English Pantomime From The 1700's
I love live theatre, and The English Pantomime. It started in the 1700's, in Britain, and since Canada is hugely influenced by Britain, we host regular pantomime performances. During the holidays, I saw The Snow Queen Panto and it was great, but I fear this unique form of live comedyfamily entertainment will soon be extinct if they don't update it to fit in with modern times.
1. The costumes aren't relevant to modern day, and need updating.
The traditional English costumes from the 1700's are cool, like the traditional sun queen and bride costumes, but the old suits and dresses look dowdy and this could be solved by sprinkling in a few punk rockers, YouTubers, Gamers, Foodies, and Influencers to appeal to all audience members, grandkids, teens, adults and seniors. Think Burning Man meets the Royal Family.
2. Update The Musical Score to include Beatle type music, the most popular British rock band of all time, to at least bring panto into the 1960's era to please the grandmas in the audience.
The traditional English folk music and dancing is fine for certain scenes, but modern day sets and characters would spice things up and fill the seats in the theatre. Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite has the clowny, carnival vibe of the panto. They did do a Billie Eilish song and dance for the "bad guy" which was cool, but isolated.
3. The Innuendo for the adults was good, but more of it was needed.
The Frozen Evil Prince took a jab at "the jab" with his wand, threatening to vaccinate the sun queen and it was funny, but isolated, and more current event jokes were needed to keep the momentum of the audience participation high.
4. The main male character was played by a female as the tradition states, but she wore high heeled thigh boots and shorts, and looked really feminine, and it would have been funnier if she had a big man's suit on.
To turn things upside down and confuse is part of the point of a fun pantomime, but to go halfway doesn't work.
5. The requisite bad guy the 'baddie' was bad, but too sensitive when the crowd booed his appearance on stage, (also a requirement). He should relish the crowd booing him for playing his evil role to perfection, and say "louder!"
The booing crowd, when he came on stage, should have pumped him up more. He should have taken a victory lap. Instead, he put his head down and felt sorry for himself.
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