QX popped to Balans to meet grand panto dame Simon Gross and the colourful cast from his latest seasonal theatrical extravaganza, A Lad In Tights…
Tell us about this year’s panto! What’s the story?
This year’s panto is A-Lad-In-Tights (Aladdin). It’s set in the ever so subtly named ‘Kingdom of F*ck You’. It really is a typical panto with traditional audience participation, camp musical numbers (though we’re probably camper than any other panto) and everything you would expect from a pantomime. This is for adults only so it gets very messy or as Wishee Washee describes it, a ‘mucky’ panto. So come along and join Aladdin on his magic carpet ride!
You’ve been running pantos for a few years now. What productions have you staged before?
Last year we performed ‘Sinderfella’, which went down an absolute storm with everyone who watched it, and before that we had ‘Snow White and the Seven Poofs’, which again had outstanding reviews. All of our pantos are adult only and all of them have a crazy, camp and delightful charm. I mean seriously who doesn’t love a genie camper than the love child of Gok Wan and Alan Carr?
And you wrote it yourself? What twists on the traditional tale can we look forward to?
This year I teamed up with Joe Meloy (who played Rihanna, one half of the ugly sisters in last year’s panto ‘Sinderfella’) to write this year’s panto. As I mentioned before you can expect everything that you’d usually see in a family pantomime but with swearing, sex, a genie who’s camper than Christmas, a princess who would f*ck anything that moves and of course Aladdin played traditionally by the beautiful Stephanie Von Clitz.
Tell us about rising star Stephanie Von Clitz who plays the lead.
We have a new drag queen this year, Stephanie Von Clitz, playing the title role of Aladdin. She is absolutely fabulous and of course looks amazing in a pair of fishnet tights! She really is the full package. You can expect great things from our new drag queen this year and if you don’t believe us get yourself a ticket and find out!
Slave Of The Ring (Natalie Anson)
A tart with a heart, a cross between Lily Savage, Shakira and Katie Price without the tits!
The Genie (Nathan Powell)
A camper, bigger version of Rusty Lee, is that possible!
Wishee Washhe (Henry Collie)
The funny man all the way from Dublin, our very own male version of Mrs Brown in Aladdin!
Stephanie Von Clitz
A boy who’s a girl who’s a drag queen in a pair of tights called Aladdin I’m confused!
Dance
r-Tom Willis
A great pair of buns you can crack nuts with. One for the gays to dribble at!
• A Lad in Tights! will be Upstairs at the Prince of Wales (150-151 Drury Lane, WC2) from 2nd December 2014 to 4th January 2015.
• To book tickets, visit: www.ticketweb.co.uk
