(This post was originally posted by Stevie Dawson on the Coronation Street Blog in December 2017, reposted to this blog with permission.)
Too much time on my hands again. So time for my second
Christmas blog of the season. As a bit of a distraction from all the doom and
gloom of the cobbles at the moment – Anna clobbering poor Eileen over the head
with that wrench, Aidan Connor making yet more enemies, Fiz being forced to
leave her family at Christmas to nurse Cilla back to health, and the ongoing
buildup toward Billy the Vicar’s revelations going public (depressing innit) – I’ve put together
my fantasy Corrie Christmas Panto lineup, complete with characters and their
Christmas lookalikes. Enjoy, and let me know if you can think of any others.
Ebenezer Scrooge
Peter Barlow
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David Platt
The Grinch
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Kid from Home Alone
Sally Webster
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The Snowman
Norris Cole
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Kirk Sutherland
Arthur Christmas
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Here's a great list of Coronation Street cast past and present who are in panto this year: PANTO 2017/18 as well as Flaming Nora's fab review of Bill Ward and his current panto Jack and the Beanstalk HERE.
There are two kinds of people in this world - those who love pantomime and those who don't. I fall firmly into the first category. I adore pantomime and go every year to my local theatre, the Sunderland Empire. And what could be better than seeing a pantomime at my favourite theatre? Seeing a pantomime that stars an ex-Coronation Street actor.
Last year's panto at the Sunderland Empire was Aladdin and it starred Terence Maynard, better known to Corrie fans as Tony Stewart. Terence was wonderful in his panto role and he hammed it up in perfect panto style - my review of last year's panto is here.
This year's panto is Sleeping Beauty with Corrie's Janice Battersby - actress Vicky Entwistle - playing the part of the evil Carabosse. What joy it was to boo and hiss every time she came on stage. She really was wonderful in the role, it's the first time I've seen Vicky in anything outside of Coronation Street and she looked as if she was enjoying playing the panto baddie a great deal. She absolutely stole the show during Carabosse's song and dance routine, singing the song "I'm a bad fairy"... wonderful stuff.
Since leaving Coronation Street as Janice Battersby, Vicky has appeared in numerous stage productions including the UK tours of Funny Peculiar, The Vagina Monologues, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and made her West End debut playing Madame Thernardier in Les Miserables. She has recently played the role of Francis Whittaker in Father Brown series five for the BBC.
I do wonder, now that Toyah is returning to Coronation Street this Christmas, whether this might herald the return of Janice as Toyah's mum some time in the future? Let's hope so.
There were a couple of Corrie-related references thrown in to the pantomime from Vicky's character. But the best was when the story had to move 100 years into the future, after which the King asked: "I wonder if Ken Barlow is still in Coronation Street?"
The panto this year at the Sunderland Empire was one of the best I've seen there in the last few years. Trying to pin down what makes it so special is a little like trying to say what's magical about Christmas. I just can't quite put my finger on what made it so good. The whole panto cast were magnificient, and it was a very strong performance from all of them.
However, for me, Bobby Crush as panto dame Nurse Nelly was an abolute delight. I grew up watching Bobby on telly playing his piano and as a panto dame he's one of the best I've seen. Faye Tozer as the Good Fairy puts in a great performance with the kids (and me) in the audience going wild when she did a Steps-medley including Tragedy!
And I have to give full credit to Andrew Agnew who played Silly Billy (and also directed the panto). I've never watched Balamory for which Andrew is most well-known, but his presence on stage is magical and I was clapping and singing along with him everytime he appeared - and doing the jazz hands too. What a treat he was.
In short - this is one of the best pantos I've seen in recent years at the Sunderland Empire. Vicky Entwistle is definitely worth watching on stage and I'd be very keen to see more of her in different productions on stage after having seen her in panto.
I adore pantomime, I really do. And given the chance to see a Corrie actor on stage in panto at my local theatre was an opportunity I was not going to miss. Off I went to our glorious Sunderland Empire last night to see the panto Aladdin starring Terence Maynard in the role of evil Abanazar.
Terence has gone into panto fresh from his stint on Coronation Street as Tony Stewart – making the move from a baddie on screen to a baddie on stage. Oh, and what a baddie he was!
In Coronation Street, Terence Maynard as Tony broke Liz McDonald’s heart, ripped her off a share of the Rovers and toyed with Tracy Barlow. He was nasty all-round, a real villain but one with charisma and charm and I hope he’ll return to Weatherfield soon.
On stage in panto as Abanazar, Terence Maynard stole the show. He snarled, he sneered, he was evil and bad - everything a good panto villain should be. But he also played the part with a tongue-in-cheek air, which of course is the style of panto, and it made evil Abanazar the most fun to watch.
Corrie received a few mentions from Abanazar with nods to Liz McDonald, Barlow’s Buys and Weatherfield. And Terence’s background as a Shakespearean actor was given a good send up in typical panto-style. “I’m classically trained!” he retorts at one point. At another, Abanazar makes such an over-the-top panto entrance which Terence milks for all it’s worth. Just when you think he’s done with his lines, it goes on and on and when he’s finally finished Widow Twankey nods to the audience: “You can see why we paid good money for him! He’s a proper actor!”
He certainly seemed to be enjoying himself on stage, relishing the noise and chaos he caused in the audience when he was booed all the way from the front row of the stalls to the back of the upper circle every time he appeared.
As such a wonderful actor, it was no surprise that he could pull off the part of a panto villain with aplomb. What was a turn up for the books was when Abanazar had a solo singing spot, and Terence rocked it all the way and back - and then some. He’s an excellent singer and I noticed in his credits from the panto programme that he’d played the part of Billy Flynn on stage in Chicago. You can watch him singing on that show via the wonders of Youtube below:
Starring alongside Terence Maynard in Aladdin is Alison Hammond from ITV’s This Morning as the Slave of the Ring.
But it was Widow Twankey played by Ian Good (who also directed the panto) who, for me, was up there with Terence as one of the stars of the show.
Aladdin, the pantomime runs at the Sunderland Empire this festive season. The full cast and ticket information can be found here.
