On Friday 12 December, the New Wolsey Theatre will be taking part in the third National Panto Day, and to celebrate they would like to reveal the following statistics that Panto-fans will enjoy!
The following information has been gathered from 2001, when Artistic Director Peter Rowe’s rock’n’roll pantomimes began at the New Wolsey Theatre:
Tuesday 30 December at 7.30pm will their 1000th pantomime performance!
It is estimated that by February 2015, 400,000 tickets will have been sold for pantomimes over the last 14 years. That’s enough to fill:
- Wembley Stadium = 4.4 times
- A Boeing 747 = 1159 times
- An Ipswich Bus = 4210 times
- ….and Ipswich Town Football Club’s Portman Road stadium 13.2 times!
They have performed each of the 7 traditional panto stories twice.
Altogether, 90 actors have appeared in our rock’n’roll pantos. The top 5 appearances are:
- Shirley Darroch – 553 performances (7 pantos)
- Harry Myers – 430 performances (6 pantos)
- Steve Simmonds – 385 (5 pantos)
- Sarah Mahony - 326 (4 pantos – currently Luxury in this year’s Beauty and the Beast)
- Esther Biddle – 325 (4 pantos – currently Good Fairy Fortunate in this years’ Beauty and the Beast)
The total combing playing weeks of all 14 shows is 126 weeks – this equates to 2.4 years out of their 14 year history!
And finally, if every show was performed back to back, it would take 100 days!
There is still good available for selected January week day dates. Please contact a Ticket Sales Assistant for more information on 01473 295900, or have a look on online at www.wolseytheatre.co.uk and select Best Availability.
