The Show, December 10, 2012

Yes, there is A Christmas Carol - now and forever. But if you want to delight an audience full of families, profoundly fatigued by the season and feeling the stress to the ends of their hair, you gotsta have a panto. Theatres across Great Britain know this well, Canadian theatres less so. Which is why we need a madman like Ross Petty who, each year, shimmies into a dress (the archetypal "Dame"), grabs whatever fairy tale that comes along (this year it's Snow White), gets some decent writers (including the great Rick Miller, for this outing) and throws enough silliness at the crowd that all worries dissolve. A good panto cast - and by all reports (including our reviewer Stuart Munro) this is a good one - will play the audience, ad lib like mad, change the script to respond to today's news, and toss out vulgarity that flies over the kiddies' heads and hits the grownups in the gut. Celebrate the season with a panto. You're not likely to regret it. (Photo via Facebook)