Is It Time for a Night of Panto? Oh Yes It Is ; from Some Classic Charles Dickens to Stephen Fry's Racy Old Vic Production, Fiona Mountford Rounds Up This Year's Bumper Crop of Festive Family Shows

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POSH PANTO Cinderella Old Vic, SE1 Sir Ian McKellen may currently be giving us his Lear, but it is his take on another great role in the classical canon that will really go down in theatre history. Yes, McKellens Widow Twankey for the Old Vic in 2004 and 2005 suddenly made Its behind you! an acceptable statement again and with one rub of the magic lamp, the genre of posh panto came into being. If anything, the Vic has gone even posher for this years Cinderella, enlisting Stephen Fry to write the script and Oscar-winner Anne Dudley to compose the music. Following McKellens lead, proper actors, rather than just old lags from regional rep, now embrace the genre, and so Pauline …