Once Upon a Pantomime
Once Upon a Pantomime is an original story featuring many beloved fairytale characters, and some brand new ones! When cheerful but dim William finds a comb on the floor and picks it up to give to his daughters, an evil sorceress appears and kidnaps the girls, locking one in a cottage and one in a tower. Two heroic but bumbling princes hear of the damsels in distress and, with the help of William and a friendly dame, decide to rescue them. But it turns out the boys aren't very good at rescuing princesses...
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Luckily, when it becomes clear the princes can't save the princesses on their own, there is still help on the way. The princesses have a third sister, Little Red Riding Hood, who steps in with her mentor, Melody the Good Fairy, and they rescue the girls and come together to defeat the evil sorceress.
Character List
Snow White
Female
18-35
Rose Red
Female
18-35
Melody
Female
Any age
Ursulent
Female
Any age
Prince John
Male or female-as-male
18-35
Prince Sam
Male or female-as-male
18-35
William
Male
40+
Amanda
Dame
40+
Lucy / Little Red Riding Hood
Female
Child/teenager
Sweet and lovely girl who is trapped in a cottage for a long time on her own by the evil sorceress Ursulent. Rival to her sister Rose Red, they squabble a fair bit throughout the show.
Rose Red is kept in a tower and is feistier than her sister Snow White. She argues constantly with Ursulent and can be a loose cannon. She grows increasingly more dishevelled as the show progresses.
Fairy Godmother character and narrator of the story. She rescues and raises Lucy away from Ursulent's minions. She is helpful, friendly and kind, but doesn't stand for nonsense.
A beautiful sorceress who steals the princesses in an act of vengeance and plots to steal their youth for herself using a wicked spell. She's nasty and calculating - a panto baddie!
Love interest to Snow White. He comes from a faraway land to rescue the fair maiden. Arrogant and competes constantly with Sam. A jokey, comedy character.
Love interest to Rose Red. Also from a faraway land, he wants to rescue the princesses too. Arrogant and competes constantly with John. A jokey, comedy character.
Father to the princesses. He is serious at first, but a spell from the evil sorceress turns him into a fool. He now works in Amanda's coffee shop and can't remember anything before the spell. He makes funny observations and is a bit dim.
Owner of the local coffee shop. She finds William wandering the forest alone and takes him in. Amanda is friendly, but brash, brazen and a bit pushy.
Lucy is the little sister of the two princesses, but she is rescued and hidden away by Melody. She spends years learning magic and reappears in Act 2 to save the day. She is confident and kind-hearted.
Supporting Roles and Ensemble
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This show is best performed with a junior ensemble. Melody and Ursulent each have a troop of sprites (good and wicked respectively) and we recommend having a big enough ensemble to split into good and wicked. There are some small speaking roles for ensemble and plenty of opportunities for dancing and solo singing for ensemble characters.
Young Snow White, Young Rose Red and Young Lucy appear in one scene in Act 1 and each have a small number of lines, perfect for smaller children.
Please note: the role of Lucy only appears in Act 2, so this role can be part of the ensemble for Act 1. We recommend casting a more confident child or teenager as Lucy.
Listen to this show on Youtube:
A radio version of this script, performed by COS Musical Theatre, is available to listen here.