£1m panto

THE day this theatre has a bog standard pantomime I won’t be the person in charge,” says Newcastle Theatre Royal producer/ director Michael Harrison when asked about the elaborate arrangements he’s put in place for this year’s entertainment, Robinson Crusoe.

So many ideas have been packed into the show that four wagons of scenery – including an 18ft pirate ship and a spaceship – lighting, smoke machines, backdrops and costumes – with three dinosaur outfits among the more unusual – pulled up at the venue last week and Harrison admits he, initially, feared only three could be unloaded.

“I did think we’d overdone it this year and the theatre very generously allowed us to move opening night from Saturday to the Monday and then to Tuesday... to be honest if we packed in any more than we are I don’t think we’d be opening until March,” he jokes.

Biggest gamble of all is Titan the Robot who is an unknown quantity and will be the oddest castaway ever seen in the Robinson Crusoe story. Harrison opted for a computer programmed star, who will trot out his Geordie jokes electronically, rather than join nearly every other theatre in the land by putting a big TV or movie name under contract.

“Yes, we could have booked a big name to draw in the crowds but that would have meant no budget for all the fantastic things we’re doing and giving it to one star to buy a Ferrari and a nicer house.

To be honest the only performers worth that kind of money are John Barrowman, Joe Pasquale and Brian Conley,” he says.

That’s an interesting view because elsewhere, like Darlington Civic Theatre, Harrison’s Qdos pantomime company has gone for well-known names, Ian Reddington from Coronation Street and “Boogie” Pete Hillier of CBeebies, to ensure good ticket sales for Jack And The Beanstalk. “Darlington is a smaller theatre and is limited to the amount of special effects we can put in, but the beanstalk is going to look great and the giant is better than Newcastle last year.

“Darlington has a different style of pantomime and we’ve found that Steve Arnott’s (director and dame) solid storytelling style goes down better,”

explains Harrison. Although, one suspects that if his company could book the Chuckle Brothers every year that Darlington’s success would be as automatic as the 3D effects and robot heading for Newcastle.

Harrison explains that his first masterstroke was in discovering that father and son performers, Clive Webb and Danny Adams, could not only amuse Tynesiders, but get them re-booking for tickets the same year and the following year. “Their fan mail is unbelievable and there are people at the stagedoor already wanting to meet them. We’ve got people who are baking cakes for them.

“We keep seeming to set records but I’m pretty confident that we’ll have £1m of bookings before opening night (beating the previous record by a week) and our aim is to reach audience figures of 100,000 (currently the theatre attracts 77,000 to 78,000 ticket-buyers),” says Harrison. The director has quite a reputation at stake and admits that he looks forward to hosting a night for around 14 theatre managers at Newcastle where the silver jets, silver streams and confetti cannons will thunder over a pantomime featuring everything from Aztec treasure to Danny Adams swinging down from the upper circle on a wire.

“They all get very jealous,” he says.