December 15, 2004

Krankie hurt in fall from beanstalk can only mean that it's Panto season again. Sir Ian McClellan is playing Widow Twanky in Kevin Spacey's Aladdin from this Friday. But it's not just those upstarts: every city in Britain has one, and it's a tradition with much history and wonder. Can Christmas be Christmas without some good old-fashioned cross-dressing and double entendre for the whole family? Is this stuff only found in the UK? It's behind me, boys and girls?
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName 20 years ago
  • Can Christmas be Christmas without some good old-fashioned cross-dressing and double entendre for the whole family? Oh, no it can't. Oh, yes it can.
  • You shall go to the ball, Flashboy. I must just mention that I mean no disrespect to the injured Wee Jimmy: it was just the most culturally specific headline I've seen on a wire ever.
  • A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: "Wee Jimmy Krankie fell out of the beanstalk on to the stage and was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary." I think the opportunity to say things like that is why a person might strive to become a spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance service. Wonderful.
  • aw, you can have all the fun you want, while some monkeys are stuck with this or godforbid this for the umpteenth time. enjoy those pantos!
  • Panto is almost unheard of in North America, alas. Milton Berle came close to being a Dame, though. However, the farther we get from the old Variety and Vaudeville days, the more cross-dressing begins to seem outlandish if not grotesque to folk who have lost touch with much of earleir North American theatre history and tradition.
  • I've worked with the Krankies, & I have to say, two of the most hardworking & professional types I've ever worked with. Among the few who don't treat lowly sound engineers like crap (I can't say the same for Rolf Harris, who is an asshole in RL). I hope Janette is ok.
  • Panto is almost unheard of in North America, alas. Very true. And this is only one of the roughly nine-and-ninety reasons that I want to spend some serious time in London before I die.
  • I've worked with the Krankies *boggles* *worships*
  • I presume the real reason for David Blunkett's resignation is so he can play an evil step-sister at the Winter Gardens.
  • I've worked with the Krankies So he's quite normal apart from shagging a middle aged midget who dresses as a schoolboy?
  • More here and here concerning this traditional form of English entertainment.
  • Thanks for the panto links. My wife and I saw our first panto here in London last week, and (lifelong Americans that we are) we were very curious about the traditions behind what we were seeing.
  • "So he's quite normal apart from shagging a middle aged midget who dresses as a schoolboy?" If the 'he' you refer to is Ian, then not only is he quite normal, but he's a professional with a stage & tv career that is longer than you have been alive, I would bargain. Janette is not a 'midget' but merely a rather petite woman, who started doing an act playing a cheeky schoolboy in the mid 60s, but that was by no means the only character she did. The jimmy character was popular, so it took over. At the end of every show she comes out dressed as herself, looking quite the normal woman (apart from being short) in a lovely dress, saying 'and this is me' then sings a couple of nice numbers. Actually, making the joke about shagging a woman dressed as a schoolboy is a gag that crops up in the act, as 'Jimmy' goads Ian. It gets a big laugh. They're a very nice couple. Janette is a particularly kind person. That's very rare in showbiz, most people are rather egotistical and nasty.
  • Panto is almost unheard of in North America, alas. There. I've fixed that for you, sir. Karen Kain and Ross Petty have been taking pantomimes across the Great White North for at least twenty years. It's only you benighted Americains who don't know the joy of a good cross-dressing pie fight and young ingenues in tights playing the male lead.
  • The only thing I know about pantomimes is what I learned from The Thin Blue Line episode in which Inspector Fowler and the gang performed Peter Pan for the Christmas panto. But now I can learn more. Thanks DangerIsMyMiddlename!
  • And thanks to bees and bonehead too.
  • Pantos are starting to come to Toronto, but are being billed as "family musicals" because no one has any idea what a pantomine would be. I personally would be expecting a dumbshow or such, if I hadn't been told otherwise. That said, not having grown up with them, I have that same incomprehension of their appeal that many people do for Star Trek, which is clearly one of the twentieth century's greatest contributions to world culture.
  • Monkeyfilter: a good cross-dressing pie fight A winner, I'm sure you'll all agree