Potted Panto Unwraps Xmas at Vaudeville, 14 Dec

The West End is turning into a veritable winter wonderland for children this Christmas. The latest production to announce a season of yuletide matinees is, as previously tipped, Potted Panto, which will run at the Vaudeville Theatre from 14 December 2010 to 9 January 2011 (previews from 10 December).

The latest offering from CBBC children’s TV presenters Dan and Jeff (aka Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner), Potted Panto will have matinees at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 4pm, and Sunday performances at 4pm and 7pm. It will run concurrently with the Vaudeville’s main-slot production, Lindsay Posner’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, which stars real-life husband and wife Alexander Hanson and Samantha Bond and starts performances on 4 November.

Potted Panto follows Dan and Jeff’s abridgements of the Harry Potter novels (Potted Potter) and piratical yarns (Potted Pirates), both of which have previously had West End runs at Trafalgar Studios 2 as well as touring and running at the Edinburgh Fringe, where Potted Panto premiered this past August.

Performed and co-written by Dan and Jeff, with director Richard Hurst, Potted Panto reduces “the best ingredients of the nation’s favourite festive shows into one neatly gift-wrapped packaged, including Cinderella in 3D, “full-scale” versions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, the “first-ever Fairy Godchicken”, a princess face-off and two men attempting to play seven dwarves and all other characters between them.

Other daytime children’s shows sharing venues in the West End this Christmas are Peppa Pig’s Party at the Criterion (home of The 39 Steps) from 30 November and The Night Before Christmas at the Ambassadors (home of Stomp) from 7 December.