Panto cancellations and postponements pose enormous threat to theatres

Over the past week it has become ever clearer that the planned panto season in the UK's theatres will not be able to take place – with theatres including the Birmingham Hippodrome, Blackpool Grand and Kings Theatre Edinburgh all announcing the cancellation or postponement of their pantomimes.

While sad for regular panto-going families it might be easy to underestimate the importance of this, and the devastating impact it may have. Last week The Stage reported expected £90 million losses as a result of this change to programming, and producer and managing director of Qdos Entertainment Michael Harrison – normally responsible for 34 pantos across the UK – wrote that 'For non-subsidised theatres, pantomime is their subsidy. It can contribute up to 35% of a theatre’s overall revenue' – needless to say, therefore, without that annual boost to the income, there are many theatres whose survival will be fundamentally threatened.

Unfortunately, with no prospect of non-socially distanced performance being considered before November, it's impossible to conceive of many pantomimes being mounted in a financially viable way – and so the ongoing impact of the pandemic is felt in theatres.