Panto fun is serious business - oh yes it is.
Laughter, boos, cheers, and a cascade of colorful characters, It may seem like pure, carefree comedy.
But it's no lie... there are lots of strings attached to making new panto Pinocchio into a spectacular six week success at at Bradford's Alhambra Theatre, now running to January 19, 2024 - get tickets at https://www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/whats-on/pinocchio?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgdC6BhCgARIsAPWNWH1zxSX2aWnlqdpfwERAoGB8di7GhVBPpy7WAuRGnW2zo_YRedZ8XjkaAv7EEALw_wcB#ticket-listing
Laughter, boos, cheers, and a cascade of colorful characters, It may seem like pure, carefree comedy.
But it's no lie... there are lots of strings attached to making new panto Pinocchio into a spectacular six week success at at Bradford's Alhambra Theatre, now running to January 19, 2024 - get tickets at https://www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/whats-on/pinocchio?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgdC6BhCgARIsAPWNWH1zxSX2aWnlqdpfwERAoGB8di7GhVBPpy7WAuRGnW2zo_YRedZ8XjkaAv7EEALw_wcB#ticket-listing
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm in Pinocchio at the Bradford Alhambra in the year 2024-2025 and we've rehearsed
00:17at least for four hours and we've got it absolutely brilliant. The people in this show are some
00:22of the best people I've ever worked with. So we've got Chris Gascoigne from Coronation
00:26Street, who me and him are having a bromance. I love him to pieces, he's wonderful to work
00:31with. And we've got Courtney Act who's also wonderful. All the cast, the crew, everybody's
00:35absolutely brilliant. The special effects, the lighting, the costumes, the sound is top
00:41notch. It's like a western production and everybody's a kid when they come to the Pantomime
00:46and it's a show for everybody, young and old. It's brilliant, I love it.
00:50Panto is fun but it's a serious business as well. All the rehearsals that we have to do
00:55to make it look fun and like it's spontaneous. Some of it is spontaneous but a lot of rehearsals
01:00go into making it look how the audience enjoy a panto. If my nose grew with every white
01:05liar told about how hard it was to put on a panto, I don't think I'd be that long a
01:12nose because I'm pretty truthful about how hard a work it is.
01:15It's fantastic to be part of Bradford City of Culture, it's great for the show and you
01:19can really see how it can really help a city and bring visitors and show a different side
01:24to the city.
01:25Are you drawing on any Coronation Street villains to help you get that role just right?
01:31That may be a little bit of Richard Hillman, you know, with that kind of thing. I'm a villain.
01:37I'm getting a lot of boos but the serious side really is that people say, oh it's Panto,
01:44you can make it up. Believe me, you can't. How am I going to go back to Corrie?
01:48So I do miss everybody but the workload is difficult. You know, I did eight years full
01:52on so I got tired. You can't ever say never to anything, who knows what's going to happen.
02:00I think I was born to play the role of the Blue Fairy in this pantomime. It's not a too
02:05far departure from who I am. I mean, Panto's got such a tradition of men being women and
02:09women being men that getting invited to do this role felt quite natural really.