Tyne Theatre and Opera House Panto Extravaganza

After the announcement that many theatres across the country are cancelling their Christmas pantomimes, the Tyne Theatre and Opera House have come to the rescue. 

The Tyne Theatre and Opera House have announced that although they will be postponing their 2020 Pantomime; Sleeping Beauty, the theatre will be bringing a week-long, socially-distanced panto extravaganza to Newcastle.

Despite restrictions, the theatre promises a ‘GIANT of a show’, starring panto favourite Charlie Richmond as Simple Simon, with the rest of the cast of ‘North East’s best panto talent’ still to be announced. 

The theatre will be seating audiences in socially distanced groups of 2, 4 and 6. Which will accompany a host of additional safety measures, details of which can be found on the Tyne Theatre website. 

In a statement, the theatre have said: 

“It’s clear that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a traditional pantomime. We’ve been working incredibly hard to ensure that this can be done safely for our venue staff, panto cast and crew, as well as our audiences. 

This year’s production is a specially designed 75 minute rib-tickling festive treat for all the family, with a reduced capacity and no interval to minimise crowding.” 

Tickets for Jack and the Beanstalk go on general sale at 10am on Monday 19th October 2020. 

Theatre Director Joanne Johnson said: 

“We’ve had a lot of feedback from our audiences to suggest that people really want to see a show at Christmas this year. It has been a difficult year for everyone and for many of our customers, an opportunity for some panto fun and laughter in December is more important than ever. 

Having hosted our first socially distanced shows this month, we have seen that it is possible to deliver live entertainment in a safe way. 

We are expecting tickets to sell quickly due to high demand on a limited run, with limited capacity. We advise booking early to avoid missing out. We absolutely can’t wait to welcome our panto audience back into the Tyne Theatre this Christmas.” 

The theatre have said that the decision to postpone Sleeping Beauty, with producers Enchanted Entertainment, was made to avoid the need to restrict capacity beyond what had already sold and make significant changes to the show itself. 

In an announcement, they have said: “We have big plans for Sleeping Beauty and want you all to be able to see it as we had intended – for this reason we will be postponing the show until 2021.” 

They have clarified that ticket holders will have their tickets transferred to December 2021, and should wait to be contacted by their point of purchase to arrange this.

Pre-sale tickets are available from 12 noon on Friday 16th October for Sleeping Beauty ticket holders. For full information on how to access the pre-sale, customers should see the Jack and the Beanstalk event page on the Tyne Theatre website. 

As an independent venue, the Tyne Theatre and Opera House relies entirely on ticket sales and donations to survive and keep the theatre’s 150+ year heritage alive. In addition to buying tickets for upcoming shows, you can also support the theatre directly by donating to their #SaveOurTheatres Crowdfunder campaign launched earlier this month.