We’ve never thought of Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks as typical Jewish females; but that was before they both got a makeover. And no, we’re not talking Botox top-ups and lash extensions. The beloved characters of our childhood stories have been given the panto treatment – Jewish style.
Last year Little Red saw her Wolf swapped for a Pig when JW3 ventured into the spirit of the season with what was billed as the first Jewish panto. Oy, the excitement at being allowed to participate in such a Christmas tradition, and let’s face it – Jews are all about tradition. Of course we all went and still go to watch the annual pantos across the capital and beyond to see such troopers as Julian Clary (the Dame at the Palladium) or Samantha Womack (Cinderella in St Albans) in sequins and tights. But suddenly we were unwrapping a present of our own – Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig.
No need to tell you that it was a hit as the curtain has just risen on this year’s Jewish panto Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah. (Click here to read our review.) Slipping seamlessly from Goldilocks to Goldie, (the character who had the temerity to sleep in the most comfortable bear’s bed) has now been reimagined as a dressmaker and not just any couturier, but the best in all the land. No surprise then that the evil fashion designer Calvin Brine has kept her trapped in his workshop for all her young life.
The man responsible for this oh so Jewish jaunt is playwright Nick Cassenbaum, who also gave us Red last year and he brings a solid background in street performing and a clear love for Jewishisms.
Debbie Chazen in Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig at JW3
“I grew up culturally Jewish in Woodford and learnt Yiddish for a few years in my 20s,” says Nick, who was able to fit in some work at Edinburgh fringe –REVENGE: After the Levoyah – before picking up the panto. “I heard Yiddish from my parents and grandparents. We used it freely in our community, thinking certain words were common vernacular so I’m not particularly shy of using it in my work. Lots of non-Jews came to see the panto last year – people aren’t afraid of learning something new and seeing something not so familiar to them. It’s an all-Jewish cast this year – I think that’s our first port of call because the material is so specific that by having Jewish performers, there’s a level of explaining that doesn’t need to happen. They just lean into certain rhythms and are exceptionally artistic regardless of being Jewish. That said, our director isn’t Jewish but is a panto expert and neither is our musical director but he’s devoted his life to Jewish music.
“There’s certainly a democracy in panto – you have to impress people immediately,” says Nick thoughtfully. “I watched a lot of Disney as a kid and loved fairytales like The Three Little Pigs, loving the ‘talking animals’ aspect which is incorporated into Goldie.”
Debbie Chazen as Mama Behr in Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah at JW3. Photo: Eamonn B Shanahan, Capture with Pride
While the role of the Dame is usually an extroverted male, Debbie Chazen returns as the Dame, only this time instead of Mother Hoodman she is Mama Behr.
“Panto is from my youth and actually what drew me to become an actor,” she says. “It’s got such appeal on so many generational levels, especially kids who have never experienced any sort of theatre and I adore the audience participation and the shouting out. However, there are rules – there has to be a goodie, a baddie, a chase scene, a slosh scene – that’s ‘getting messy’. Last year it was water pistols in Red Riding Hood and we had people begging to get soaked. Often there’s a ghost or monster of some sort which takes someone away each time they’re on stage. Nick writes this all in so cleverly.”
Shminderella
From the moment JW3 boss Raymond Simonson huffed and puffed about blowing the house down with the first Jewish panto we were (Captain) hooked, but without wishing to steal their (cue) thunder, award-winning writers and comedians Bennett Arron and Mark Maier would argue that the first Jewish panto was their very own Shinderella, which debuted at Muswell Hill Synagogue. “I grew up very Orthodox, the only Jewish family in Port Talbot and was a panto regular as a kid,” says Bennett. “Mark and I have been friends forever and often work together, most recently on Rabbi Santa’s Night of Comedy at the Radlett Centre, now in its seventh year. But a drunken conversation got us into writing Shinderella and that was five or six years ago. But its still talked about.”
Gemma Barnett in Red Riding Hood and the Three Bad Pigs at JW3
For all our standing on the sidelines of Christmas traditions, there has been no shortage of Jewish performers headlining in pantos and many of them unexpected. I mean, who would expect to see Dynasty diva and superstar Joan Collins as ‘Queen Rat’ in Dick Whittington? Oh no she wasn’t, you shout? Well she did at the Birmingham Hippodrome in 2010. And what’s good enough for Alexis was good enough for her Dynasty co-star Emma Samms (I wanted to change my name to ‘Fallon’), playing ‘Fairy Twinkletoes’ in Jack and the Beanstalk in Cheltenham. Much-loved sixties singer and friend of The Beatles Helen Shapiro had a real penchant for panto and notably principal boy as she played Dick Whittington multiple times, as well as Robin Hood, and did a fabulous turn as the genie in Aladdin.
Lesley Joseph and Rob Rinder
More recently, real-life friends Lesley Joseph and Rob Rinder starred in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Milton Keynes theatre last December and they are back at the Theatre Royal Plymouth with Rob reprising his role of the Man in the Mirror. Rob, who makes no secret of his love for a glittery costume is never more at home than on a stage, but he has also worked out why we have such an affinity with panto. “I think because from Jewish religious ritual to Yiddish theatre, community has been at the heart of all performance and panto is the ultimate intergenerational knees up. Pantomime is about families from every background and age being alongside one another, to enjoy not just an entertainment, but to have a moment of escapism. It’s fun, it’s silly, and above all else it’s inclusive, and Jewish cultural life is all about that.”
Dishing up even more Yiddishkeit panto this December was Yankl & Der Beanstalk. With an LGBTQ+ twist, Manchester Jewish Museum brought audiences to magical lands including… Hampstead, following Yankl the pickle seller who swaps some pickles for beans and grows a beanstalk. As director Samuel Ranger says ‘there is no story too serious or deep to be “panto-fied”.
So, for those looking for something different this festive season, including a Christmas Day show when there are perhaps too many cooks and the head chef needs some space, what better way to sit back, boo, hiss and cheer than to go and see Goldie Frocks and the Bear Mitzvah at JW3. Running until Sunday 5 January 2025. For tickets: jw3.org.uk/panto
