Visited Sunday 23rd (Evening) – Mansfield Palace Theatre
Mansfield Palace Theatre has once again served up a festive treat with this year’s panto Snow White – and what a brilliantly bonkers, joy-packed night it was! Brimming with energy, sparkle, and the kind of belly-laughs that remind you why panto season is pure magic, this year’s production is an absolute winner.
We always look forwards to the Mansfield Palace Christmas Panto and this year is definitely one of the best ever. From the moment the curtain rose, the cast had the audience, young and old, wrapped around their glitter-covered fingers. Snow White and Prince Frederick delivered some gorgeous vocals, with their duets soaring effortlessly and bringing a welcome dash of classic fairy-tale charm to balance out the wonderfully unhinged comedy.
Panto thrives on mischief, and the comic team did not disappoint. Ben Harlow returned again as the ‘incredibly tall and statuesque’ Dame Dilly Donut and Adam Moss retuned for ‘yet another year’ as Muddles. Their chemistry was unstoppable, and their timing razor sharp. We particularly liked the hight difference between Ben and Adam… they should get their own show on the BBC!! Dame Dilly’s dresses were incredible and Adam is once again the glue that holds the whole performance together. All the latest songs, all the latest jokes and all the latest topics (I know that first hand as some of the Tik Tok references made my kids groan and cover their faces!!)
The runaway highlight?
The utterly unhinged and side-splittingly funny “12 Days of Christmas” routine featuring Dame Dilly, Muddles, and the ever-cheeky dwarf Cheeky. It was the kind of sequence where each verse got sillier, louder, and more chaotic—exactly as panto should be. By day seven we’d already lost track of the plot, but we never stopped laughing.
Another stand-out was the now-infamous tongue-twister scene, where Dame Dilly Donut and Muddles attempted a linguistic dance far beyond human capability. The inevitable slip, resulting in Dame Dilly accidentally blurting out a rather rude word, had the entire audience howling. A perfectly executed “mistake,” delivered with glorious innocence.
And then there was the Magical Well scene with Muddles and Snow White. The timing on the gag, waiting, waiting, still waiting for the stone to hit the water, was so impeccably drawn out that the final splash brought the house down.
The seven dwarfs, Prof, Wiffy, Cheeky, Stroppy, Disney, Dozy, and Snotty, brought bundles of character and charm, with each one leaning gleefully into their persona. They provided some of the biggest laughs of the night and were a huge hit with the children.
Overall, this year’s Mansfield panto is fast, funny, fabulously performed, and stuffed with festive cheer. With great music, scenery, costumes, dancers, standout comedy, and a cast that clearly loves every minute on stage, it’s everything you want from a Christmas family night out.
Highly recommended. Don’t miss it!
p.s. Every year Mansfield does a thing we’ve not seen done in the same way anywhere else… after the show has ended Adam Moss always makes himself available in reception for a ‘meet and greet’. We watched him talk to everyone who wanted to meet him, giving them real time and genuine respect, love and affection. It’s things like this that makes local theatre so special.
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