Best British Panto
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Harlequin and Mother Goose is a classic British pantomime originating from 19th-century harlequinade traditions. The 1806 Covent Garden production, featuring Joseph Grimaldi’s renowned Harlequin character, established key elements of the genre’s enduring popularity. This performance became highly in...
A British pantomime featuring the Dame role prominently, based on the nursery rhyme figure associated with collections of English verse dating to the 18th century.
A British pantomime based on the legend of Richard Whittington, who served as Lord Mayor of London three times around 1400 and is traditionally paired with a famous cat.
A British pantomime based on the English fairy tale of a boy who trades a cow for magic beans and climbs a beanstalk to outwit a giant; the tale was first published in 1807.
An alternative title for the Dick Whittington pantomime that places greater emphasis on the legendary cat companion of the historical Lord Mayor of London Richard Whittington.
An early British harlequinade pantomime merging the Aladdin story from One Thousand and One Nights with commedia dell'arte characters, popular in the early 19th century.
A British pantomime based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale first published by Charles Perrault in 1697, about a princess cursed to sleep until awakened by a royal prince.
An early British harlequinade pantomime merging the Cinderella fairy tale with commedia dell'arte characters including Harlequin and Columbine, popular in the early 19th century.
A British pantomime based on the Open Sesame story from One Thousand and One Nights, featuring a poor woodcutter who discovers a thieves' hidden treasure cave.
A British pantomime based on the fairy tale first recorded by Robert Southey in 1837, in which a girl enters a bears' cottage and samples their food, chairs, and beds.
A British pantomime combining the Babes in the Wood tale with the Robin Hood legend, casting the outlaw as a rescuer of the abandoned children; a popular Victorian stage pairing.
A British pantomime derived from an old English ballad about two orphaned children abandoned in a forest by a wicked uncle; one of the earliest recurring pantomime subjects.
A British pantomime based on the fairy tale first published by Charles Perrault in France in 1697, about a girl in a red hood who encounters a deceptive wolf in the forest.
An early British harlequinade pantomime retelling the Dick Whittington legend with commedia dell'arte characters, part of the Georgian tradition of transforming fairy tales into harlequinades.
A British pantomime based on the nursery rhyme character, notable for its oversized egg-shaped protagonist who falls irreparably from a wall, popularised in the Victorian era.
A British pantomime based on the voyager hero of One Thousand and One Nights, whose seven legendary sea voyages provided rich material for adventure-themed stage spectacle.
An early British harlequinade pantomime combining the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill with commedia dell'arte characters such as Harlequin and Columbine from the Georgian stage tradition.
British pantomime combining the commedia dell'arte trickster Harlequin with Roger Bacon, the legendary English friar credited with magical powers, in the 18th–19th-century harlequinade tradition.
A British pantomime based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of 1812, about a magical dwarf who helps a miller's daughter spin straw into gold in exchange for her firstborn child.
A stage pantomime centered on a magical flute as its principal plot device, part of the British entertainment tradition that adapted fairy-tale and operatic themes for popular audiences.
A British pantomime focusing on the villainous gang from the Ali Baba story of One Thousand and One Nights; often staged as a companion or sequel to the Ali Baba pantomime.
An early 19th-century British harlequinade pantomime featuring a malevolent dwarf villain combined with commedia dell'arte characters in the tradition of the Georgian patent theatres.
A British pantomime based on an old Yorkshire ballad about a dragon terrorising the village of Wantley; also adapted as a burlesque opera by John Frederick Lampe in 1737.
A British pantomime based on the nursery rhyme about a foolish character who meets a pieman at a fair; one of several nursery rhyme figures adapted for the Victorian stage.
A British pantomime based on a moral children's story published in 1765 by John Newbery's London press, about an orphan girl who acquires a complete pair of shoes and rises in society.
A British pantomime based on the nursery rhyme about a merry monarch who calls for his pipe, bowl, and fiddlers three; a recurring royal subject in Victorian pantomime.
A British pantomime based on the nursery rhyme about a shepherdess who loses her sheep; often combined with pastoral subjects in Victorian-era double-bill productions.
A British pantomime based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale Le Petit Poucet, about a tiny boy who uses his wits to outwit a man-eating ogre and rescue his brothers.
A British pantomime based on a fairy tale featuring a hero aided by seven servants each possessing a unique magical gift, drawn from European literary fairy tale traditions.
