Imagine Theatre Confirms All Star Line-up For This Year's Pantomime Season

Casting is complete for Imagine Theatre's biggest panto season with an all-star line-up getting ready to bring 18 magical family pantomimes to audiences across England, Wales and Scotland.

Star casting includes TV star Vernon Kay, making his pantomime debut in Cinderella in High Wycombe, TV stars AJ Pritchard & Curtis Pritchard, Joe McFadden, Anne Hegerty, Louie Spence, Sue Holderness, X Factor finalists Amelia Lily and Andy Abraham, Coronation Street and television actor Jamie Kenna, CBeebies stars Justin Fletcher, Evie Pickerill and Rebecca Keatley, Channel 5 Milkshake presenters Kiera-Nicole Brennan and Nathan Connor, comedian Jarred Christmas, comedian and social media star Parle Patel, Britain's Got Talent finalists Jon Clegg, Matt Edwards and Paul Burling and The Voice's Barbara Bryceland.

The season also offers panto favourites such as JP McCue, Sean Dodds, Iain Lauchlan, Craig Hollingsworth, Kev Johns, David Ashley, Ben Watson, Tim McArthur, Adam Stafford, Josh Benson, Malcolm Lord, Paul Morse, James Lusted, John Evans, Martin Ballard, Joe Pollard, Andrew Agnew, Greg Powrie, alongside established musical theatre performers Amelia Atherton, Hayley Gallivan, Stefan Pejic, Nathan Routledge, Jonathan Alden, Joelle Moses, Aled Davies, Richard Locke, Peter Lawrence, Neil Moors, James Bisp, Roger Wright and many other talented industry professionals.

With titles including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Jack and Beanstalk, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Imagine will produce shows in Coventry, Crewe, Falkirk, Glenrothes, Halifax, High Wycombe, Hastings, Hayes, Inverness, Kilmarnock, Leamington, Leicester, Llandudno, Porthcawl, Reading, Rotherham, Swansea and Swindon as well as touring three productions of Santa's Christmas Rescue and will put on a total of 21 shows in different venues across the season with the curtain going up 905 times!

The Imagine panto warehouse is filled to the brim with more than 30,000 costumes (that's a whole lot of sequins!) just waiting to be given a twirl and 200 professional performers are preparing to take to the stage in roles from Fairy Flutterby to Fleshcreep and Dame Dorothy Do It to Simon Le Bon Bon. They will perform alongside around 350 local children who have been cast via open auditions and a team of more than 25 office staff plus the creative teams and crew all there to help make the magic happen with the support of the amazing venue teams.

Imagine, who are proud to be a carbon neutral business, will also be presenting ground-breaking digital sets in two of their pantomimes, which utilise state of the art technology to create a magical and enchanting theatrical experience for theatre goers of all ages. These shows, which this year are being presented in High Wycombe (Cinderella) and Swansea (Beauty and the Beast) have all of the usual elements you'd expect to find in a traditional pantomime brought to life with LED animated scenes which change with each part of the story.

Steve Boden, Managing Director at Imagine says: "This year is an exciting year for Imagine, our biggest ever. We have amazing new scripts from some of the country's best panto writers, whilst we also bring together some of your favourite panto land faces along with amazingly talented newcomers and of course some very exciting stars.

In a challenging season last year more than three hundred and twenty thousand panto goers still enjoyed coming to see us and this year we hope to break box office records to bring joy and cheer to our wonderful audiences once again."

Laura Taylor, Head of Celebrity Casting for Imagine says:

"I am absolutely thrilled with our line-up for the 2022/23 pantomime season which brings together pantomime legends, a host of stars from all areas of the entertainment industry and Vernon Kay making his pantomime debut. Only in pantomime do you see West End performers rubbing shoulders with TV stars, pop stars and even game show hosts! 2022 has been a challenging year for so many reasons, but pantomime provides the perfect escape for the whole family to get out to their local theatre and enjoy the magic of live performance together in an exciting and welcoming environment and just have fun. It's a privilege to be able to provide that opportunity in so many of the UK regions."

With sparkle, slosh and laughs galore this season looks set to be the best ever. Find out more at imaginetheatre.co.uk and book your tickets for the best family Christmas treat now.

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