SLEEPING BEAUTY Pantomime Concludes Run at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre is celebrating the success of Sleeping Beauty, the in-house produced pantomime with over 25 five-star reviews, which concluded its run on 4 January 2026.

In recent years, The Grand has taken to producing its own pantomime once more, which hadn't been done in almost 50 years. By bringing the pantomime back in-house, it has allowed for local talent to shine in every element.

Two Wolverhampton-born actors were seen in principal roles in the pantomime, Zak Douglas as Gerald The Herald and Solomon Davy as Prince Stephen. The Grand Theatre employs performers not just on stage but in roles such as Front of House, which keep people in employment in between their stage and screen roles. Front of House Duty Manager Zak Douglas who can be seen on ITV's G'wed, Channel 5's The Good Ship Murder, proved to be a hugely popular edition to the panto cast line up. West End star Solomon Davy, who first performed on the Grand Theatre stage at the age of 2 with Codsall's Carol Suttie School of Dance, wowed audiences as Link Larkin in Hairspray back in February 2025 and proved to be a very popular edition to this year's pantomime lineup.

The casting of 24 local children provided an invaluable professional experience to young performers who took to the stage to play younger versions of the prince and princess at age 7 and age 14 – requiring both acting and singing. Some young performers were part of the Grand Theatre and Arena Theatre's Youth Theatre and are hoping to become professional performers whilst others dance at local dance schools in the surrounding areas. Some children had very little performance experience yet showed great talent and now have the footing to progress, having had their skills nurtured over the past five weeks.

Eden Garrattley has been employed here at the Grand Theatre as Assistant Stage Manager for Sleeping Beauty after taking part in the Solihull College & University Centre Creative Venue Technician Bootcamp earlier this year. Wolverhampton Grand Theatre was part of the initiative by West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) designed for adult learners who want to progress or begin a career in the creative industries. Having gained rare hands-on experience across the 12 week programme, Eden has been able to utilise her newly developed skills in festive employment at the Grand. Eden said; “Stage management was what first sparked my passion to start working in the theatre industry, but I haven't had many chances to gain hands-on experience in this area until now. I'm really grateful to The Grand for trusting me with this role and giving me the chance to take this next step in my career.”

Over 100kg of glitter were used on what is being referred to as pantomime's sparkliest set which sparkled under the expert lighting design of Sam Hilditch – the Grand Theatre's own Head of Technical, who's skills were able to be utilised to create the entire lighting design for the pantomime.

TV coverage for the pantomime has been plentiful with BBC Worldwide once again reporting on the economics of the Wolverhampton pantomime on their pre-breakfast slot on BBC One. Creative Director Tim Colegate highlighted the importance of pantomime to the Grand Theatre programme.  BBC Midlands Today showcased Zak's story from Front Of House Manager to pantomime star by shining a light on the work our Front Of House Visitor Experience staff do, who work just as hard off stage as those on stage and behind the scenes. TV coverage for the pantomime also extended to Channel 4 with a visit from Jill Scott and Maisie Adams who filmed a short documentary on Wolves Women, which aired before the FA Cup match against Nottingham Forest. In the documentary, Jill and Maisie visited the Grand Theatre which highlighted the pantomime and included filming on stage on the set of the pantomime.

Four special panto podcasts were filmed during the run of Sleeping Beauty. Episodes with Danny Beard, Debra Stephenson, Zak Douglas & Solomon Davy and Georgia Iudica-Davies.

For the second-year running, the Grand Theatre has invested in a Travel Fund scheme which provided eligible schools with complimentary coach travel to and from the theatre, when booking to see a production. The scheme has been funded in collaboration with The Richardson Brothers Foundation and offered schools based in Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley complimentary travel to the theatre until August 2026, to a production of their choice – many of whom utilised the scheme to see Sleeping Beauty. School attendance for Sleeping Beauty was the highest in modern records.