A standing ovation often marks the end of a particularly strong production. Your cast have worked hard, your crew have supported them brilliantly, and they all deserve the praise. So how do you achieve the fabled standing ‘O’?
Pace
Dialogue delivered with pace and attack is more entertaining and engaging to audiences. It keeps them on the edges of their seats. Often this isn’t about line delivery speed (which can affect clarity when too fast). Focus on removing the space between one character’s line and another’s (this is called picking up cues).
It also helps ensure the character’s motivations are delivered with appropriate intensity to show the stakes of the story. If Rapunzel is trapped in her tower, but she doesn’t pick up her cues and show us how upset she is, we won’t root for her to be set free.
Running Time
We’ve all seen shows which feel like they go on forever. Pace will help with this, but you also need to keep your overall running time in check. For a children’s pantomime, anything longer than 2 hours and 30mins including a 20min interval is probably pushing it a bit.
Frequent offenders that push running time are overlong songs (I usually advise a verse, chorus, bridge and chorus is more than sufficient), extended ad-libs, comedy routines which lack pace, slow scene changes (find out how to fix them here) and generally picking up cues in dialogue.
For titles with lots of characters like Peter Pan (my largest cast script available) this advise is particularly important. The script may be written well, but if it’s not performed with timing, anything can drag!
Laugh out loud comedy
When you’re rehearsing the comic elements of your script, it should make you giggle. Or at least anyone else in the room who are watching the scene. If you can keep those giggles all the way through to the end of your rehearsal period, you know you’re onto a winner.
When unexpected panto dame Aunty Em joins Dorothy and the gang on their way to the Emerald City in my Wizard of Oz script, she keeps the comedy coming right to the end. So there’s plenty of opportunities to keep those laughs coming.
Songs for everyone
Song choices can be crucial to achieving a pantomime that everyone will enjoy. Long-gone are the days of dreary ballads between principal boy and principal girl. The best contemporary pantomime songs are true ‘bops’ and should have your cast and audience tapping their toes when they hear them.
I like to include a mixture of hits from the past year, the past five years, and a few retro hits from back in the day so that children, parents and grandparents alike have music they can enjoy together.
Need some ideas for great pantomime numbers? I’ve got handy guides for panto dame songs, villains, and finales.
Top tip – where you have picked a slower ballad, or sentimental number, throw together some comedy slapstick to take place underneath it and keep the audience encapsulated! What’s better than Dick Whittington‘s cat attempting to catch a rat while Dick sings a serious love song to Alice?
Playing to your cast’s strengths
Audiences love to watch actors doing what they do best. Does your Belle have a cracking singing voice? Make sure they get to show that off during your Beauty and the Beast. Perhaps you have particularly talented scenic painters? Give them a chance to shine with the rich mountain environments of my Jack and the Beanstalk (Alpine Edition).
Talent is contagious and it’s always a pleasure to watch someone doing something they love and are brilliant at! Who can resist the Tickle family (led by pantomime dame Tiffany Tickle) rattling off one-liners at a rate of knots in Once Upon a Time in Pantoland? After all, it’s what they do best!
Conclusion
If you can ensure all this advice is in place for your next production, your audience is sure to give the ovation you deserve!
Got any tips of your own? I’d love to hear them. Get in touch today.
