A mix of merriment, music and mayhem makes panto a beloved British holiday tradition

LONDON (AP) — Here’s a recipe as essential to Christmas in Britain as turkey, tinsel and mince pies.

Mix a fairy-tale plot with topical references, slapstick, song, dance and double entendres. Drench in sequins and spangles, mix vigorously, add some noisy audience participation, and you have a panto.

Pantos — short for pantomimes — are stage musicals that play at theaters big and small across the U.K. each winter. Formulaic but anarchic, family friendly but a little risque, they are a holiday tradition that give many children their first exposure to live theater — and adults a chance to cut loose.

Anyone who thinks Britons are buttoned up hasn't been to a panto. Audiences happily shed their inhibitions – cheering, singing, hissing the villain, shouting “He’s behind you!” to warn the hero.

“It’s singing, dancing, laughing — taking the family out and being able to be out with their kids and letting the kids run riot,” said Clive Rowe, who directed and stars in “Dick Whittington and his Cat” at the Hackney Empire — his 17th annual panto for the storied east London theater.

Pantomime has deep roots, stretching back to the stock characters and bawdy humor of the 16th-century Italian commedia dell’arte and the French harlequinade, as well as the English music hall. By the late 19th century, the elements had gelled into a form still recognizable today.

The plots are drawn from well-known fairy tales and children’s stories such as “Aladdin,” “Snow White” and “Cinderella.” Characters include a plucky hero, or “principal boy,” often played by a woman, an outrageous villain, and a “dame,” a sharp-tongued matron who is always played by a man in fabulously flamboyant drag.

“The pantomime dame is the beating heart of the show,” said Simon Sladen, curator of theater and performance at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. “She is that engine that drives it. Firstly with pace and anarchy, but also a little bit of sauce on the side.”

An estimated 3 million people in Britain attend a pantomime each year, in venues ranging from small regional theaters to London West End playhouses. Many theaters rely on them for a big chunk of their annual income.

When London’s theaters were closed for months by pandemic lockdowns in 2020, panto dames led a protest march through the city to stress their importance to the creative economy.

They provide seasonal work to faded pop stars, television entertainers, the occasional Hollywood celebrity — Pamela Anderson took Liverpool by storm when she starred in “Aladdin” in 2010, singing “Santa Baby” while suspended on a swing above the stage, dressed in costumes by Vivienne Westwood.

They are also vital experience for many young actors, including the A-listers of tomorrow.

Jude Law told The Associated Press recently that he’d played Humpty Dumpty, recalling his performance as “loud and round.” At 17, Michael Fassbender played one of Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters, and a tree.

“Wicked” star Jonathan Bailey starred alongside a young Nicholas Hoult in a production of “Peter Pan.” Hoult also appeared in “Mother Goose” as a child, and says he would happily do another, as they’re “really fun.”

Asked to sum up the art form, Bailey called it a “quintessentially British bloody good time for all the family.”

Today’s pantos often strive to reflect diversity, both onstage and in the audience. Rowe, whose Hackney Empire pantos draw many of their cast and crew from Britain’s Black communities, said that at its core the genre is “about acceptance.”

“It’s about understanding, it’s about the idea that being different isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “It should be brought in and kind of celebrated and that no matter where you are in society, from the youngest to the oldest, we all have a place and we should embrace that.”

Drag performer Ginger Johnson, starring in an adult “all-drag panto” version of “Peter Pan” at London’s Phoenix Theatre, said that panto’s ability to change is “why it’s managed to survive for so long as a cultural form.”

“I think for a lot of kids, panto is the first time that they come in contact with drag as well,” Johnson said.

Stage historian Sladen said that some are leaning into the drag element of panto, with “a bigger, wider explosion of roles than just the dame and the principal boy being cross-dressed.”

“We might see the fairy godmother played by a dame or played by a drag artist. We might see a wicked stepmother, also played by a very well-known drag performer. So (it’s) constantly evolving, constantly changing with the times.”

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Kandaka Moore as Dick Whittington poses during a photocall for Hackney Empire's 25th pantomime in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Beth Sindy as Fairy Bowbells and Kat B as Thomas the Cat, appear on stage during a photocall for Hackney Empire's Dick Whittington and His Cat in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Graham MacDuff as King Rat strikes a pose on stage during a photocall for Hackney Empire's Dick Whittington and His Cat in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Kat B as Thomas the Cat and Kandaka Moore as Dick Whittington perform during a photocall for Hackney Empire's 25th pantomime in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Kat B as Thomas the Cat performs during a photocall for Hackney Empire's 25th pantomime in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Clive Rowe as Dame Sarah the Cook poses on stage during a photocall for Hackney Empire's 25th pantomime, Dick Whittington and His Cat, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Olivier Award-winner Clive Rowe (right) performs as Dame Sarah the Cook during a photocall for Hackney Empire's Dick Whittington and His Cat in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Olivier Award-winner Clive Rowe (right) performs as Dame Sarah the Cook during a photocall for Hackney Empire's Dick Whittington and His Cat in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

A blast of snow, ice, wind and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in parts of the central U.S. on Sunday, as a disruptive winter storm brought the possibility of the “heaviest snowfall in a decade” to some areas.

Snow and ice blanketed major roadways in nearly all of Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the state's National Guard was activated to help any motorists who were stuck. At least 8 inches of snow were expected, particularly north of Interstate 70, as the National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where blizzard conditions were reported. The warning extended to New Jersey for Monday and into early Tuesday.

“For locations in this region that receive the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade,” the weather service said early Sunday.

About 63 million people in the U.S. were under some kind of winter weather advisory, watch or warning on Sunday, according to Bob Oravec with the National Weather Service.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole. People in the U.S., Europe and Asia experience its intense cold when the vortex escapes and stretches south.

Studies show a fast-warming Arctic is partly to blame for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its icy grip.

In Indiana, snow fully covered portions of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and U.S. Route 41, prompting Indiana State Police to plead with motorists to stay off the roads as plows worked to keep up with the pace of the precipitation.

“It’s snowing so hard, the snow plows go through and then within a half hour the roadways are completely covered again,” Sgt. Todd Ringle said.

Part of I-70 was closed in central Kansas by Saturday afternoon. Roughly 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow had fallen in parts of the state, with snow and sleet totals predicted to top 14 inches for parts of Kansas and northern Missouri.

Parts of upstate New York saw 3 feet (0.9 meters) or more of snow from a lake effect event expected to last until late Sunday afternoon.

The storm was then forecast to move into the Ohio Valley and reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday and Monday, with a hard freeze expected as far south as Florida.

The National Weather Service warned that travel in numerous states, including Kansas and Missouri, could be “very difficult to impossible.”

Indiana State Police reported a handful of spinouts and crashes Sunday.

A day earlier a fire truck, several tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles overturned west of Salina. Rigs also jackknifed and went into ditches, state Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said. He posted a video showing his boots sliding across the highway blacktop like he was on ice skates. He begged people to stay off the roads.

Governors in neighboring Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency.

The storms also caused havoc for the nation’s railways, leading to cancelations. Amtrak said in a statement that “adjustments have been made with no alternative transportation being offered” for many rail lines.

More than 20 cancelations were predicted on Sunday and more than 40 were planned for Monday.

The cancelations affected many parts of the country, but the Midwest was hit especially hard. A train between Chicago and New York and several regional trains between Chicago and St. Louis were among those canceled Sunday.

Nearly 200 flights in and out of St. Louis Lambert International Airport were canceled, according to tracking platform FlightAware.

Starting Monday, the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling cold and wind chills, forecasters said. Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) below normal.

In Chicago on Sunday, temperatures hovered in the teens (minus 7 to 10 Celsius) and around zero in Minneapolis, while dropping to 11 below in International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border.

The Northeastern states are more likely to experience several days of cold following what has mostly been a mild start to winter, said Jon Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. A plume of cold air coming down from Canada is likely to result in a cold but dry week, he said.

The cold air will likely grip the eastern half of the country as far south as Georgia, Palmer said, with parts of the East Coast experiencing freezing temperatures and lows dipping into the single digits in some areas.

Wind might also pick up as the week gets going, making for potentially dangerous conditions for people exposed to the elements for long periods of time, Palmer said.

The National Weather Service predicted 8 to 12 inches (about 20 to 30 centimeters) of snow for the Annapolis, Maryland, area, with temperatures remaining below freezing throughout the weekend.

In a statement on X, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency Friday evening ahead of the storm and encouraged residents to vote before the state's special elections on Tuesday.

Similar declarations were issued in Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland and in central Illinois cities.

“This is the real deal,” meteorologist John Gordon said at a press conference in Louisville, Kentucky. “Are the weather people blowing this out of proportion? No.”

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

Associated Press journalists Julie Walker in New York, Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri, contributed. Witte reported from Annapolis, Maryland. Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

Snow falls in St. Joseph, Mo., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram)

More snow falls near the American Legion Post in Lowville, N.Y., Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

FILE - A leaf is frozen in the ice of a garden pond during cold weather in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - Steve Beckett with the street department in Owensboro, Ky., sprays a salt brine solution along Hickman Avenue in preparation for predicted snow and ice over the weekend, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. (Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)

More winter weather blows into Lowville, New York on Saturday, January 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)

In a photo released by the Kansas Highway Patrol, a car is wedged between two trucks during icy weather Saturday, Jan. 4, 2024, in Salina, Kansas. (Kansas Highway Patrol via AP)

A snowplow passes through Lowville, New York, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)