British Pantomime Performance

British pantomime, a blend of commedia dell'arte and vaudeville-style performance, uses cross-dressing, familiar children's stories such asCinderella, and shouts from the audience as the basis for its matchless theatrical spectacle. Millie Taylor'sBritish Pantomime Performanceexplores how pantomime creates an interactive relationship withand potentially transformative experience forits audiences. In its uniquely British form, pantomime draws viewers into the story through an engagement with the hero, an empathetic attachment to the success of the quest, and a complicit relationship between actors and spectators as they unite to create the live performance. A heady combination of slapstick, dance, and witty repartee, British pantomime strives to seek balance between the intellectual appreciation of artifice, the chaotic possibilities of interactivity, and the emotional engagement of narrative storytelling.British Pantomime Performancedigs beneath the jokes to force a reevaluation of pantomime's importance as a dramatic art form. "Their [industry professionals] contributions provide a fascinating insight not only into some of the secrets and tricks that help produce the magic we see on stage, but also help complement and develop the ideas of the author. I would highly recommend it to anyone working in pantomime or teaching it in the post-16 sector."Journal of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama "It is rare for a scholarly work to be so handy with the nuts and bolts of performance. Millie Taylor has been the musical director of British professional pantomimes, and there has never been a better guide that this to the true priorities of those who stalwartly produce them."Peter Thompson, Editor ofStudies in Theatre & Performance

Millie Taylor is senior lecturer in performing arts at the University of Winchester, United Kingdom. She has worked as a freelance musical director and toured with West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, and other productions.