‘Cruising’ Star Jane McDonald Cruises Into Lavish London Palladium ‘Robin Hood’ Panto Starring Julian Clary In Title Position

EXCLUSIVE: Comic and author Julian Clary (Julian Clary: Reside – Lord of the Mince) will play the title position 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 develop 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 enjoying Seaman Smee, was a sold-out success, enjoying 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 folks have been within the queue, ready their flip to ebook seats.

“That’s larger 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 enjoying 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 have 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 enjoying to sturdy homes on the Lyceum. Extra not too long ago, the actor wowed as Ben E. King and Rudy Lewis in The Drifters Lady, which starred Beverley Knight .

Harrison instructed me that he needed to have a 12 months the place Clary might play the title position, “As a result of clearly, he’s central to all of it. However he by no means performs the principle position. It’s at all times sort of a task on the facet wanting in, regardless that the present’s at all times about him.”

The panto king shared that he thought it could 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.Okay., due to her Cruising and different television journey exhibits, together with her Jane and Pals selection present and 20 years, ending in 2023, as a presenter on Free Girls. 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 enjoying Robin Hood, although he received’t be as strapping as those that have performed the outlaw on the large 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, enjoying 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 shall be getting Al-A-Dale to do a number 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 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 believe folks need the identical, but additionally a little bit bit totally different, and this 12 months’s going to be a little bit 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 big 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 puzzled whether or not Clary could 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 might take as much as three dressers to get him into a dressing up. These outfits are massive set items.”

Not that Clary’s complaining.

With a wink, Harrison instructed me that Clary’s “wanting ahead to working together with his Merry Males.”

My social media’s full of people searching 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 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 induced a commotion on the first efficiency, when the artistic crew couldn’t stand of their regular spots as a result of most people have 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 Hiya,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, contemporary 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 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 be being overseen by Harrison. Sheppard’s latest productions embody Reside Support musical Simply For One Day, and The Little Large Issues, which noticed Amy Trigg win one of the best supporting actress in a musical Olivier Award.