COLCHESTER’S Mercury Theatre has announced the full cast and creative team for their 2024 to 2025 pantomime - The New Adventures of Peter Pan.
The pantomime will be written by David Phipps-Davis and directed by and starring Mercury Pantomime legend Antony Stuart-Hicks as Sherry Smee, as well as fellow legend Dale Superville as Smee.
West End star David Breeds (Rock of Ages, Dear Evan Hansen) will be the titular character and Jazz Evans (Spamalot, Madagascar – The Musical) will be Captain Hook - both making their Mercury pantomime debuts.
Returning to the Mercury for pantomime season will be Alexandra Barredo as Wendy and Sasha Latoya as Tinkerbell, with Nick Brittain-Keates and Shelby Speed back as a part of the ensemble cast and understudies.
The production will again feature a junior chorus of local young performers and out of 126 hopefuls, 16 young people were chosen aged between nine and 16 from all over Colchester.
The young people are Isla Christie, Daisie McIntyre, Niamh Butcher, Tristan Mathieson-Scott, Harrison Agoro, Benjamin Spalding, Chloe Cheung, Roseanna Davis, Dolly Chew, Bella Guest, Lilia Gillooly, Misan Idowu, Archie Kropidlowski, Joe Clark, Miguel Benerayan, and Chloe Long.
The Pantomime Award-winner Jasmine Swan will return as the designer, with Matt Ladkin as Lighting Designer, Nico Menghini as the sound designer, Rosie Mather as the choreographer and Joshua Tarrier as the musical director.
Dame - Mercury Theatre's legendary panto dame Antony Stuart-Hicks (Image: Submitted)
Mr Stuart-Hicks said: “The New Adventures of Peter Pan promises to be an awe-inspiring spectacle with the perfect blend of breath-taking sets and costumes, mind-blowing flying and effects, side-splitting comedy and of course the usual warning applies... I will very much be in it."
There will be a range of accessible shows throughout the run including relaxed, audio-described, captioned and BSL-interpreted performances.
The Mercury will also bring back its popular 18+ adults-only performances with seven shows held in January.
There is also an additional week to this year’s run due to last year’s record-breaking sales which sold 98.4 per cent of available tickets.
Tickets start at £10 and there are fifty £10 tickets available at every off-peak performance, as well as discounts for school and youth groups – so families across Essex can attend.
Tickets for other performances start at £15 and can be booked at mercurytheatre.co.uk.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here