This year’s Theatre Royal Christmas panto has been postponed until 2021. Instead we can look forward to a ‘smash hit’ comedy.
This is the theatre statement released this morning:
The Theatre Royal Bath is delighted to confirm that there will be family entertainment in the Main House this Christmas, as the international smash hit comedy THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG will now run at the Theatre Royal Bath from 17 December until 10 January. This coincides with the reopening of the London production which is now enjoying its sixth year at the Duchess Theatre.
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG replaces the previously announced pantomime, CINDERELLA which has been postponed until December 2021. As with other theatres around the country, pantomime is not possible with the reduced capacity of a socially distanced auditorium.
Theatre Royal Bath director Danny Moar says, “We are thrilled to be able to bring back the fantastic Mischief Theatre and one of the most popular shows of the last ten years, THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, to keep families and theatregoers laughing and smiling at the end of a very difficult year. We very much look forward to the pantomime returning in 2021”.
THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG has won multiple awards internationally, including the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. It features the (fictional) Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society who are putting on a 1920s murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong … does! As the accident prone thesps battle against all the odds to reach their final curtain call, hilarious results ensue!
Fast becoming a global phenomenon, performing across five continents including a long-running season on Broadway, Mischief Theatre’s unique brand of hilarious “gut-busting comedy” (New York Times) has found universal appeal. The company’s other West End successes include Peter Pan Goes Wrong, A Comedy About A Bank Robbery and Magic Goes Wrong; and last year saw a brand new six-part TV series for BBC One: The Goes Wrong Show, written and performed by the original founding Mischief Theatre members.
Over at Bristol the Hippodrome has also put back their pantomime to 2021.
Here in Bath the panto postponement was quite a blow for actor Jon Monie. This would have been his 20th pantomime in a row at the Theatre Royal.
He told Bath Newseum: I’m deeply saddened. I wrote a brand new show, financially viable with socially distanced audiences, but sadly, for reasons beyond my control, it didnt work out. Fingers crossed for Cinderella next year.”
