Stephen Crocker looks ahead to Norwich Theatre panto

For all of us at Norwich Theatre, this week is the week we have all been waiting in anticipation for, the start of pantomime rehearsals!

Aladdin is now in motion, and our best-laid plans are starting to come to fruition. The cast, band, and crew are all now working on a countdown towards opening the show on December 7.

In just three short weeks, the whole team will have made and fitted the costumes, built a brand new set on stage, made a huge assortment of props, learned energetic dance numbers, practiced all 30 of the different musical numbers and rehearsed the show not just until they get it right, but as my first ever stage teacher used to say to me, "until you can’t get it wrong."

When you consider that a West End show normally takes six weeks to block (work out where everyone is going to be on stage and other key scenic movements) before it even gets to rehearsals on stage, this is a quick turnaround.

It does mean there can be long days and it is a team effort to keep the team’s spirits up. But I cannot lie, it is fun and exciting, just like panto should be.

It always amazes me the amount of work involved in creating any production—and exactly how much of this work that you do not see as an audience member.

You get to see the slick production out on stage, but backstage, there is another performance entirely going on.

In fact, for every person on stage and band member in the orchestra pit in our panto this year, there is another crew member backstage, making sure that things look and sound exactly right, every single performance.

That includes colleagues who work behind, beside and underneath the stage and well as all those in lighting, video and sounding who, as you watch from your seats in the auditorium, quite literally are "behind you!"

As the old proverb goes, "it takes a village to raise a child" then panto is certainly our baby each Christmas and the Norwich Theatre village is out in force!

And it’s not just about the show itself, the work on panto is a year-round endeavour in all areas of our operation.

For example, for Aladdin, the Box Office team will sell around 60,000 tickets. Our hospitality staff will sell more than 3,500 pints of beer and 18,000 tubs of ice cream during the panto run, and our housekeeping team will spend more than 1,000 hours keeping our building and auditorium clean this panto.

And on top off all that, our volunteer stewards will give more than 3,000 hours to make panto happen so that everyone has a good time; someone might even see it 15 times … oh yes, they will!

Our Aladdin this year is set in Norfolk. And what better place to set a panto that has been lovingly created for its local audiences by our team of highly skilled creatives who either work for us right here at Norwich Theatre or have been drawn from the region?

Setting it here in the East of England is not only about making it locally relevance but giving the Aladdin story of love, hope and the innocence of youth the resonance it deserves in an appropriate way.

The fact that we can produce these stunning productions for you right here is not only fantastic but also a massive privilege.

We are one of just a handful of large-scale theatres across the country that actually produce our panto in house, most theatres buy a panto in from an external company.

There is nothing wrong with this of course, but it makes me extremely proud that by creating our panto the way we do we can offer opportunities for local creatives and tell the stories we think our audiences want to hear and in a way that will have most impact for them.

It wouldn’t be a Norfolk panto without some Norfolk stars, and we are delighted to be welcoming icon and Canaries fan Delia Smith, voicing the Great Spirit of Norwich.

I am thrilled that, as Delia and Michael step back from Norwich City, we can mark their phenomenal contribution to the life of our city in a theatrical and fun way by enrolling Delia in to the panto Hall of Fame.

I hope you all also cheer on Norfolk comedy legend Owen Evans in his dame debut, whom you may have seen switching on the Norwich Festive Lights last week.

Joining them is fan favourite Joe Tracini, who is back for his fifth year, getting up to his usual mayhem with laughter and heart and fresh from wining Best Documentary and Best Presenter at the Grierson Documentary Awards for Me and the Voice in My Head which I was privileged to help him make earlier in the year.

We have West End superstars Tarik Frimpong and Meesha Turner, and watch out for ITV star Lisa Maxwell who is set to be one of our baddest baddies yet!

I won’t give you any spoilers, but having heard the first read through, seen all the designs and helped choose the songs, this really promises to be all the panto fun you could wish for, with many opportunities to get involved.

I hope you all start doing your vocal warmups now; our panto stars will want to hear from you.

Aladdin is at Norwich Theatre Royal between December 7– January 5. For more information or to book, visit norwichtheatre.org or call our Box Office on 01603 630000.