Festive favourite Matt Slack returns to Birmingham Hippodrome this Christmas, clocking up his 11th consecutive year as the city’s pantomime funnyman. Matt stars as Pirate Smee in seafaring panto adventure Peter Pan, appearing alongside Brummie legend Alison Hammond - who returns for a second year - resident ‘Dame’ Andrew Ryan, and Danny Mac as Captain Hook.

The Hippodrome hosts the largest regional panto production in the UK, and each year has to meet - or exceed - the audience’s stellar expectations.

“This is one of the biggest shows outside of the London Palladium,” Matt explains, “and when you see what they’ve got in their show… There is a lot of pressure. I give as much as I possibly can, there’s always the support around, and as long as the audience wants me - and as far as I’m aware, the majority do… 

“People like familiarity. When they see someone they know, they feel comfortable. It’s tough, but I’m very privileged and very happy.”

Panto season is one of the most popular times in the theatre’s calendar, and there are plenty of performances to meet demand. However, with multiple shows in a day, a long theatrical run, and all that festive excitement, there’s always the chance that a show might go off the rails!...

“We’ve had so many moments that have been hilarious. I’ve got to say, as it’s Peter Pan, one of the funniest moments was when Darren Day played Captain Hook. At the end, the crocodile’s jaws come out of the orchestra pit, he steps in and goes ‘Goodbye, World…’ He got stuck! He’d pressed the panic button inside by mistake, and he couldn’t get out. The crocodile’s jaws just clamped shut - it didn’t move!

We must’ve been on stage laughing for a good five minutes. It was hilarious! Eventually he got out, and he just legged it off stage. It was very funny - the audience were in on it, so we all had a good laugh.”

Mid-show mishaps are something of an inevitability - but whenever chaos reigns, as one of the most experienced performers on stage, Matt is well equipped to improvise away from the script. 

“The key with ad-libbing is to make it look like it’s ad-libbing. In any professional, slick production - as these shows are - there’s a massive village of people making the production work, so it has to be quite precise. I have free reign if something does happen. We try to do the prep work - the hard graft goes in before... and people love it when things go down a different route.”

With his first decade in Birmingham panto now under his belt, Matt knows how to pitch comedy perfectly to a mixed audience of adults and children.

“It’s an instinct that comes naturally, and it always has with me. You’ve got to know where to draw the line, and where to push the boundaries… We are aimed towards a family audience, but we also want to entertain the adults. It’s all about double entendre and disguising it - as long as it goes over the kids’ heads and adults are laughing, that’s a job done. It’s a tricky area, and I try very hard to nail it. It’s not an easy line to walk.”

Matt, like many of the biggest stars in panto, gets involved in creating the show before even setting a foot on stage. Plans for next year’s production sometimes start brewing more than a year in advance. “I start thinking about it as I’m doing it. Last year, in Jack And The Beanstalk, I was thinking ‘We’re doing Peter Pan next - what can we do?’” 

“When I finish, I collapse for a month. I literally switch off - my body, my mind, they shut down - because it’s so intense. I have to switch off, and then to get going again is quite difficult. I get a lot of ideas early on, and then I can play with stuff through the year, so I’m ready.”

There’s a while to go before he can put his feet up this season - and a lot more fun to be had in the meantime! One of the highlights of any panto production is comic banter between the cast - and in more than half of Matt’s Hippodrome panto appearances, Andrew Ryan has also appeared as the Dame.

“A wonderful Dame! He knows me and I know him… I’m not sure how many years we’ve done. It’s nice because if I’m gonna go off on one, there’s mutual respect there. He’s a fantastic Dame in his own right, and I do my stuff. I like working with other people. We allow each other to have our moments. If you stand on someone’s toes, you’ve got to be able to take your foot off and allow them to have their time and share the stage - it’s a big stage.”

There’s plenty of panto silliness to enjoy (Oh, no there isn’t!) but does Matt have a favourite slapstick moment?

“Oh blimey! Well... there’s the If I Were Not routine - ‘If I were not in Neverland…’ That’s a classic, with the sound effects. There’s only so many slapstick routines you do. We’re doing a new one this year - it’s a bit of a twist on the 12 Days of Christmas; this year it’s A Sailor Went To Sea Sea Sea.”

Fully prepped for anything which might happen on stage (and, as it’s panto, that’s a long list) there’s only one vital piece of the puzzle missing: the audience. And there must surely be something special about Midlands audiences as far as Matt is concerned, given that he’s enticed back to Birmingham year after year...

“They’re just the best. They’re so warm, they’ve welcomed me like one of their own. I think they are a very unique type of person - very positive, very upbeat, nice, friendly and welcoming. And they like to have a laugh, which helps! What else have we got at the minute? Let’s have a laugh! Don’t worry about it - relax, and let’s just have a bit of fun!”

Feature by Jessica Clixby

Peter Pan shows at Birmingham Hippodrome from Saturday 21 December to Sunday 2 February

on Wed, 27 Nov 2024

Birmingham Hippodrome is flying high with its panto this year -  the swashbuckling adventure that is Peter Pan! Brum’s own Alison Hammond returns to the stage, after a triumphant debut last year, as the Magical Mermaid. And she will be reuniting with award-winning comic Matt Slack as Smee (Matt has been starring in the Hippodrome panto for over a decade), resident dame Andrew Ryan, and Billie-Kay as Tink. With amazing special effects, stunning sets and beautiful costumes direct from the London Palladium, Peter Pan will take the whole family on a magical trip to Neverland!

We spoke to Alison and director Michael Harrison to find out more about the piratical panto...

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Alison Hammond - Are you basing the Magical Mermaid on anyone in particular?

Yes! The Little Mermaid! I’d like to have really long red hair - I know this isn't gonna happen - I want really long red hair, but I don't want to be called Ariel; I want to be called Madison. One of my favourite films was Splash - do you remember, with Tom Hanks, and the Mermaid? They were walking down Madison Square Gardens and she said “I want to be called Madison…”

 

And what brings you back to panto - are you a sucker for punishment?

It's not really punishment, though! I enjoyed every single show that I did last year, I loved it. I'm home - Birmingham is my home town. I love being here! It's coming home - so I'm excited.

 

Do you have fond memories of pantos here?

I used to come here all the time and watch panto with my mum, my sister and my brother. We used to absolutely love it. It’s weird being in the panto, because I miss coming to the panto - going for a meal, then going to get my popcorn from the bar, sitting back, relaxing… it kind of ruins it a little bit! The fact that I'm in it - I know the story, I know what's going to happen. But you know what? It's just a different variation on how I see the panto now!

 

Are you inviting any of your celeb friends to see the show this year?

Oh yeah. Last year Josie came to see the show. Dermot came. I'm inviting Holly Willoughby this year. She said she might come. Who knows? I invite everyone and see who rocks up!

 

How do you prepare, to make sure you're always on form? What do you do before a show?

We do a physical warm-up. We do a vocal warm-up. I just always remember: someone's paid to come and see this panto, and I think, well, you've got to treat every single person exactly the same. They need to have the show exactly as the last person had it. I'll just remind myself of that, every day. I don't give less, I always give 100% - and more if I can.

 

What was your favourite moment last year?

The Strictly dance with Matt Slack! It was my favourite moment. There’s always a little moment with me and him - that was another reason I wanted to come back, I wanted another moment like that. The only problem is, in that dress, I can't dance - I can't even sit down. The reason why I'm not in the outfit right now - I can't sit down in the dress, because there's glass bubbles on the bottom and stuff like that… I can maybe perch on that chair there, but I can't sit down!

 

Was there anything from last year that you really want to bring back?

I'd like to have a little dance moment. I'd like to sing - I didn't sing last year, really. I think we should have a little Ariel moment: “Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo…” People need to hear what I can unleash - this voice... people need to know!

 

What do you think is the most important lesson you'll carry over from last year's panto to this year?

Eat well and be physically fit. If you don't eat well, it can really throw you off. I had issues with my ankle last year, so the ballet company were doing physio on my ankle and stuff like that… I don't really want to go into that this year, so I'm really trying to eat well, stay healthy, cut the Coke, and drink water. I mean Coca Cola, by the way!

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Michael Harrison, as Director, why do you think panto remains so popular?

I think it's incredibly unique to this country. It's one of the things that is very, very British, and I think people love tradition. It happens at Christmas and is truly now one of the few things that the entire family can do together. You can bring grannies, you can bring the kids. And particularly in big cities like Birmingham, where the shows have a returning star like Matt, I think it becomes part of your Christmas. There are things that you do at Christmas, and pantomime is one of them. Somebody was asking me the other day for a documentary for Sky, “Is it slowing down?” No - actually, across the board, right across the country, it’s actually getting bigger. More people are booking tickets in advance than ever before, which is great for theatre. If the pantomime is successful, it supports things for the rest of the year - pantomime is and always has been the backbone of regional theatre.

 

Why is the Hippodrome such a great venue?

It's a very special theatre because, unlike a lot of theatres in the rest of the country that have a stalls, a circle, an upper circle, a gallery, the Hippodrome just has a stalls and a circle. That makes for quite an intimate experience, given that it's quite a big theatre. You're all in the room together, rather than being separated. It's a bit like the football terraces - when you laugh, you can experience a thousand people around you laughing, rather than everybody's two floors above and two floors below. 
It’s a big stage. It's a great stage. It's a very well-equipped theatre, which means we can stage the biggest of productions. Pantomime can be some tatty little cloths and some flat scenery - this is not the case here. They're like mega West End musicals. What I've tried to do over the years in Birmingham is say, this is a theatre that, throughout the year, could have The Lion King or The Phantom Of The Opera, so the pantomime has to stand up next to those shows.

 

In terms of the set and scenery, does everything get created from scratch each year, or do you recycle things from previous years?

It's not so much recycled; it's more that, in the latter years, sets built for the Palladium have moved to Birmingham. Before that, we used to build scenery, but it was a little bit more basic. Just the fact that the Palladium is what it is really feeds the regions. They can afford to pay for it there, and then the regions benefit from it. We've really seen a noticeable difference in the quality of the physical productions at the Hippodrome simply because the set is all being paid for at the Palladium the year before.

 

When does panto planning begin for you?

Always about a year in advance. I'm actually already thinking about what next year’s pantomime will be and who might be in it and what some of the elements might be. They're just thoughts going around in my head - once the shows are on this year, we start really putting them together for the following year. It's a six-week run, but it's a year-long operation.

 

What is special about Peter Pan?

Peter Pan traditionally wasn't a pantomime. It's only really from the late 80s, early 90s that the show came into the pantomime world. It's an adventure. We all love pirates - that's always good - and it’s a pantomime set at sea, Neverland is a very magical place - it allows you to do the flying, so you can make Peter Pan very spectacular. The crocodile is fabulous. That's obviously a great moment. It's a great battle between Good and Evil; Peter against Hook is one of the great rivalries in fairy stories and literature. I'm particularly fond of this production, and I'm looking forward to doing it in Birmingham.
It's been a little while since we've done it. We had great success with it at the Palladium last year. The set is fantastic; it's one of my favourites. We've felt like it was the right thing to do.

 

What’s the biggest challenge creating a panto in 2024?

It's very hard to please all of the people all of the time, and we've got to be mindful of that. People can get offended - comedy in the past 10 years has changed a lot. You never, ever set out to offend, but there's always somebody who doesn't like a joke. We're very careful about that.
The big thing for pantomime is time - they’re the biggest shows, yet you rehearse them in the shortest period. The shows are getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year, yet we're still here working to technical schedules which are incredibly tight for such big shows. The team at the Hippodrome is so good that we always pull it off. Coming up with new ideas is very important to Matt and I - that we keep it fresh whilst giving the audiences things they know. Tickets sales are way up on last year, and that's a testament to how much people love the Hippodrome pantomime.

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Peter Pan shows at Birmingham Hippodrome from Saturday 21 December to Sunday 2 February

on Thu, 24 Oct 2024