The best Christmas pantomimes in London

Clive Rowe is the best panto dame in London, probably the world, and this year he’s somehow gotten better. But the 2024 Hackney pantomime has never felt so hinged on one human being – if he wasn’t there it would be pretty thin stuff.

Although I’m sure any story works as a pantomime if you frame it right, I think it’s fair to say that Carlo Collodi’s hallucinatory 1883 morality narrative The Adventures of Pinocchio requires a lot more framing than most. Stratford East’s 2024 pantomime is imaginitive and ballsy but perhaps to bit too mad and morally bizarre to really work as a panto.

They’ve given us ‘Potted Potter’ and ‘Potted Pirates’; now Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner and their director and co-writer Richard Hurst are back, with a madcap dash through all the big panto favourites.

After last year’s bland Cinderella, the Lyric Hammersmith has mercifully remembered that its place in the London pantomime panto is supposed to be ‘the cool one’. 

Dame Maureen Lipman and comedy magician Pete Firman are the big draws in this year’s Richmond panto, a glossy affair that this year turns to the story of Beauty and the Beast – which some would argue isn’t technically a pantomime plot – for this year’s seasonal family show.

Greenwich panto veteran Anthony Spargo writes and stars in his eleventh pantomime in a row – this year it’s time to fill your little hankie bag and head for the golden streets of London for the popular standard Dick Whittington and His Cat.

If the days of the New Wimbledon panto being a byword for insane stunt casting are over then Alexandra Burke and Joe Pasquale are definitely a solid pair of household names for this year’s edition. She’ll stars as ‘the villianous Mrs Blunderbore’ and he’ll star as Jack Trot’s brother Simon in the popular festive adventure.

Last Christmas saw the welcome return of Susie McKenna to panto duty: having masterminded the golden age of Hackney Empire’s pantomimes, the writer, director and occasional performer reemerged to take the helm of a resurgent Catford Broadway’s annual shindig, and now she’s back for more.

Gareth Gates and Doctor Ranj head up the Brit celebrity quotient of this year’s Bromley pantomime.

Born and bred Croydonite and EastEnders star Kellie Shirley will play the role of the Wicked Queen in this year’s Croydon panto, which also features Jamie Steen and Charlie Guest.

Cinderella, King’s Head Theatre’s first family panto, is packed with talent and is a lot of fun… when its elements truly mesh together. But it doesn’t reach the perfect pinnacle of festive silliness you want it to.

Last year’s inaugural JW3 Jewish panto Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig was a cheeky little gem that demonstrated the fact that pantomimes are above all shows rooted in communities – it slotted seamlessly into the festive landscape and was, by-the-by, pretty much the only work of live entertainment available to see in London on Christmas Day itself…