Theatres in Wimbledon

The Polka theatre and the new Wimbledon theatre are two theatres in Wimbledon. The Polka is a world class theatre for children, and the new Wimbledon theatre, which is on Broadway, performs pantomimes every year, with huge stars from all over the world on the cast list. This year's pantomime will be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with Priscilla Presley making her debut as the Wicked Queen.

Pantomimes

Most towns around the United Kingdom still embrace the tradition of pantomimes around Christmas time. "Pantos" as they are often referred to have been around since medieval times. Pantomimes were thought to be a low form of opera in the 1600's and became more popular when the Harlequin was introduced by John Rich in 1717, adding a more comedic and wilder performance. The Pantomime has evolved into a cross between musical hall performances and traditional Italian "Commedia dell' Arte".

Pantomime in other countries

Countries that have historical roots in the UK, perform pantomimes in the Christmas season, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada with less popularity in America, which is adopting their own American-style pantomimes, and are basically the same as those performed in the UK. One of the most successful pantomimes in America was Humpty Dumpty which ran in New York for over one thousand shows.

Themes

Children are the main audience focus of pantomimes these days, as the subject matter of most 'Pantos" are based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes, including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Puss in Boots. Amateur dramatic societies and small theatre groups often perform stories from the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson.

The Peter Pan story

J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan was first perfumed as a play in December 27th, 1904 in London at the Duke of York theatre. It was a success and performed every year round Christmas time, and eventually was shown on Broadway.

Star Names

The popularity of pantomimes in the United Kingdom have been a saving grace for some smaller theatres, who struggle for the rest of the year with low box office sales. A large audience presence also attracts star names, which in turn, secures full houses, but these will still only run for up to six to eight weeks.

Length of run

Only the bigger budget theatres, who are situated in the larger cities of the United Kingdom can run their performances for more than eight weeks. Twenty years ago, large figures could be achieved from theatres of all sizes, with theatres running for ten weeks and more, touring different theatres in the same area.

Price

The cost of a pantomime production in today's society can run it to the hundreds of thousands, some stars are paid between 15,000 and 40,000 per week, with theatres that have potential ticket takings of between GBP 2.5million and GBP 3.5million with an average ticket price of GBP 18.25 and GBP 24.50. Theatres in London's Dury lane in 1827 run up total production costs of over a GBP 1,000.