Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty - clash of the panto titans at The Kings and New Theatre Royal

Not only do we have the heavyweights of Cinderella at The Kings Theatre and Sleeping Beauty in The New Theatre Royal, but there also smaller gems such as Robin Hood at The Groundlings and The Little Mermaid in Portsmouth Guildhall Studio.

The Guide spoke with many of the leads from The Kings and New Theatre Royal’s shows about their backgrounds and the draw of performing here in Portsmouth.

Sleeping Beauty is put on by panto specialists Jordan Productions, and it is their second year working with the city centre venue.

Edward Baker-Duly who plays their King has had a globe-straddling career. He trained and started his acting career in South Africa before moving to the UK (his father is British), and then headed to New York where he appeared in several shows including The King and I on Broadway alongside Hollywood star Ken Watanabe and Kelli O'Hara, ‘which was a fantastic opportunity,’ before moving back to the UK late last decade for family reasons. His wife Caroline Trowbridge, who is also an actor, grew up in Stubbington and the pair have settled back in the area with their two children.

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‘It's been a varied career,’ says Edward with a laugh. ‘I think of myself as a jobbing actor, a character actor, and I've been lucky enough to perform in all sorts of places. I've been lucky enough to have a few outings in the West End, the most recent production was Bridges of Madison County, which Trevor Nunn directed.

‘That's one end of the scale, then at the other end of the scale, I've just finished The Grinch Who Stole Christmas up in Manchester – and I was playing the Grinch!’

Edward was in Cinderella at the NTR last year, and he says the decision to return was ‘super-easy.’

‘I hadn't done a pantomime in so long. It must be 15 years or something – it was lovely to come back. You sit down in a comfy chair when you do panto – it's great fun, you always end up with a nice company of people. This is a great venue to work in – and I'm near home! So often I've been on tour and you take digs, but here I can be with my family.’

Amy Everett plays Princess Aurora – the panto’s titular sleeping beauty, and her second time in a lead role. It is however, her first time in Portsmouth.

Speaking ahead of the show’s opening, she says: ‘I've got a few friends who came to uni here and they said it's amazing, so I'm really excited to come and spend Christmas here, I think it will be really fun.

‘It's a really beautiful theatre – the back is all very new, so it's all modern there, but it’s still got the old-fashioned charm out front.

Originally from Essex Amy has appeared in Carousel in West End and Cats on a UK tour. Before the panto she was in Mrs Doubtfire’s UK premiere run in Manchester – which is due to transfer to the West End in May next year.

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‘My first time in panto was as a child – I used to do the juvenile chorus in Chelmsford. Then my first professional panto, I was a dancer for two years. Then Jordan gave me my first lead role – last year I was Alice in Dick Whittington in Newark, now I'm here playing Sleeping Beauty.

‘I really enjoyed it last year, so I'm really happy that they wanted to have to have me back, and I've had an upgrade!

‘When I was little and I was a dancer, I would always really look up to the princesses – I would think I want to be the princess one day, so it's really cool to fulfill a little childhood dream.’

Busy stealing scenes and generally causing chaos is veteran panto dame Michael Neilson as Nurse Nelly.

‘Every Christmas I find myself doing panto for Jordan Productions. The dame I do is more of an old-fashioned dame, I suppose. I learned my dame under a great guy called Terry Scott (the Carry On… film and Terry and June sitcom star) and we ended up quite good mates. He used to teach at my old school, Guildford School of Acting. One of my first jobs was working at Plymouth Theatre Royal, I got a year's contract as players' cast, and that Christmas Terry Scott came back there to give his fantastic dame. I sat there every night watching him and observing him.’

Growing up in Guildford, Michael tells how he would take day trips to Portsmouth with his mum, and then he remembers: ‘My grandfather who fought in the First World War was on a ship called HMS Collingwood. He fought in the Battle of Jutland, and the man who was in charge of his gun was the future king of England – the Queen's father. So I have a connection with Portsmouth – and royalty!’

Down the road at The Kings in Southsea, the Pompey Panto has been bringing down the house with its Cinderella.

Panto mainstay Jack Edwards returns in the dame role – this time he’s The Fairy Godmother.

‘When we said we were doing Cinderella we looked at the characters, and I've already played ugly sister, so I didn't really want to go back and do that. Then last time we did Cinderella I was The Baroness. We don't have her in this script. We were going through all of the characters, and we thought, Portsmouth likes to see the fat bloke in a dress, so how can we disappoint them? So we wrote a part for me as the fairy godmother, and she is crazy – she is unpredictable. The fairy’s normally there to keep the plot going, and that things are running along. But we wanted a bit of mayhem.’

This is the third all produced in-house Pompey Panto at the venue, and as Jack says: ‘We do pride ourselves on throwing everything at it – we are the traditional panto and we owe something to our audiences, and we hope that we can deliver. Every year we try to build on what we do and what we bring in.’

Jack knows the show’s Cinderella, Michelle Antrobus, from ‘way back when’ through their involvement in local am-dram company Portsmouth Players. But he had no idea the West End-starring performer was auditioning until seeing her name on the list.

‘It's difficult when I know someone because I still have to be impartial, so I was upfront with everyone and said “I know her”. I sat back and let them make the decisions. It was tough, the talent was incredible, but she was over and above everybody else. As the Pompey panto we try to use local people and we're lucky we've got people who have actually been there and done it.’

While they do tap into the local pool of talent, The Kings is not above bringing in a new face from further afield.

This year that includes stand-up, TV presenter and actor Joe Rowntree. Although this is only his third panto, he says: ‘Weirdly, I wanted to get into it about a decade before. I had a producer who was going to come see me at a show I was doing called Brainiac on Sky One for six years. But Wendy Richards died and he went to her funeral which was the day he was going to come and see me. So it got scuppered and I never really chased it. But it was something on my bucketlist, then I had kids so I thought I've got to do this so they can come and see me!’

​​​A returning part of The Kings’ ‘extended panto family’ is Phats and Smalls singer Ben Ofoedu, who was the Genie here in Aladdin in 2019.​

The always effervescent performer says: ‘We've been through so much in the last two years! It's been a crazy four years since I was last year.

I've been doing panto for a while now, and I fall in love with places and theatres – but this one is particularly amazing.

‘Jack’s a real tour de force – he's got a beautiful personality, he's funny, and he's got this great energy to be around - with him as the dame as the constant is enough for anyone to want to come back because I had such a great time with him. I kept in touch with Jack and came down last year just to watch it from the audience. When they asked me to do it again, I wanted to come back anyway!

‘Panto is an amazing thing, but there needs to be chemistry back stage before the chemistry is out front – and then you can start to see it. If I'm comfortable backstage, then out front will be a doddle!’

Sleeping Beauty at The New Theatre Royal runs until December 31. Tickets £10-22.50. Go to newtheatreroyal.com.

Cinderella at The Kings Theatre also runs until December 31. Tickets £10-30. Go to kingsportsmouth.co.uk.