The best Christmas pantomimes in London

Oh yes it is: London panto season returns for 2024, and here’s Time Out’s complete rundown of every major pantomime in the city.

For some Londoners the only time of year they'll visit a theatre, for others a deliciously weird change of pace, panto season is a bizarre, joyful, quintessentially British time to come together and watch some light-hearted spoof fairytales that heavily revolve around men dressing up as women and/or farm animals.

Within that, though, there’s huge variation, from the megascale London Palladium show with its filthy figurehead Julian Clary, to Clive Rowe’s brilliant panto purism at the Hackney Empire, the eccentric subject matter of Charles Court Opera’s mini-pantos to JW3’s hilarious Jewish spin that runs on Christmas day.

I’m Andrzej Łukowski, Time Out’s theatre editor, and while this page is simply intended as a round-up of London pantomimes, then it’s an *informed* round up – I have seen approximately four billion pantos over the last 15 years or so, and know what they’re all like, plus we’ll update this page with star ratings when our reviews of this year’s crop start rolling in in late November.

London is a city that takes pantomime seriously, and even if the idea of seasonal frivolity fills you with dread, there’s a panto out there for you.

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The best Christmas theatre shows in London.