The Pasadena Playhouse announce cast members for this year's Panto at the Playhouse SLEEPING BEAUTY AND HER WINTER KNIGHT. The cast will feature Disney Recording Artist Olivia Holt as "Aurora" (Disney's "I Didn't Do It"), Lucy Lawless as "Carabosse" ("Xena: Warrior Princess," "Spartacus"), David Engel as "Nanny Tickle" (Broadway's "La Cage aux Folles," "Seussical"), Tamyra Gray as "The Good Fairy" ("American Idol," Broadway's "Bombay Dreams" and "Rent") and returning from last year's Panto at the Playhouse production of Aladdin and His Winter Wish, Ben Giroux as "Silly Billy" (CW's "Hart of Dixie).
Aladdin and His Winter Wish/written by Kris Lythgoe/directed by Bonnie Lythgoe/Pasadena Playhouse/through December 29
For a few years the prolific Lythgoe family have been entertaining us at Christmastime, first at the El Portal in NoHo and now at the Pasadena Playhouse with a British style panto. A panto is an interactive entertainment that starts with a very contemporary retelling of a fairy tale such as Snow White, Cinderella, or in this case Aladdin and turns it into a fun imaginative show with music that will appeal to both children and their parents. There's usually an actor in drag (outrageous Bruce Vilanch as the Widow Twankey, Aladdin's mother), a villain (Josh Adamson as Abanazar) and audience are encouraged to root for the heroes and HISS loudly at the villains. Actors such as Adamson tease the audience with a Mel Brooks-like phrase 'It's fun to be evil!' after which kids and adults boo and boo some more and even raise up props such as swords and other toy weapons in defense of their favorite hero. It's all in amusement, of course, and this year's Aladdin and His Winter Wish is by far the best show to date with a superlative cast, great special effects, some spectacular dancing and singing and an overall jolly good script by Kris Lythgoe that flows along without the slightest snag.
Remember when your biggest concern was covertly passing notes in the back of class? How many tater-tots the lunch lady gave you? How much glue to feed the class hamster? Five twenty-somethings find themselves sucker-punched by real life, and the result is School for Suckers, a new comedy opening at the Lillian Theatre on Tuesday, August 25 and running through September 30. All performances will be Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8:00.
Remember when your biggest concern was covertly passing notes in the back of class? How many tater-tots the lunch lady gave you? How much glue to feed the class hamster? Five twenty-somethings find themselves sucker-punched by real life, and the result is School for Suckers, a new comedy opening at the Lillian Theatre on Tuesday, August 25 and running through September 30. All performances will be Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8:00.
