Tyne Theatre & Opera House Announce Socially Distanced Jack and the Beanstalk Pantomime
The Tyne Theatre and Opera House have announced that they will be postponing their 2020 Pantomime; Sleeping Beauty. The theatre have said that this decision 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.
Show organisers, Enchanted Entertainment, have said in their statement:
“The team at Enchanted Entertainment are sad to say that we won’t be producing Sleeping Beauty this Christmas for our wonderful audiences at the Tyne Theatre & Opera House. We know how important the panto is for so many families in the North East as part of their Christmas celebrations.
However, we will now spend the extra time making sure that Sleeping Beauty sets her alarm clock and wakes up in time for our biggest and best panto yet for Christmas 2021!
We are always grateful that so many families turn out year after year to support this amazing theatre and our Christmas show and we’ll see everyone very soon for more singing, dancing and panto silliness.”
However it’s not all bad news, Tyne Theatre & Opera House have announced that they will be hosting a socially distanced Pantomime this year; Jack and the Beanstalk coming to the theatre for one week only from 18th – 24th December 2020.
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 safety for our venue staff, panto cast/crew and 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.”
The theatre will be seating audiences in socially distanced groups of 2, 4 and 6. This will accompany a host of additional safety measures, details of which can be found here on the Tyne Theatre website.
Despite restrictions, they promise 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.
Tickets for Jack and the Beanstalk go on general sale at 10am on Monday 19th October 2020. Pre-sale tickets are available from 12noon 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.
Theatre Director Joanne Johnson has 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.”
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.
Booking & safety information for Jack and the Beanstalk: http://bit.ly/TTbeanstalk
To support the theatre via their Crowdfunder campaign:
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/tynetheatre
