Word: panto
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This year some 140 pantomimes are playing in Great Britain. They are at their broadest and, in an old-fashioned way, at their best, in the provinces. In London the best of the revue artists take part, but panto-purists complain that the old fairy tales and the old simplehearted clowning are ever more laggingly interrupted by variety turns of performing dogs, conjurers, acrobats and midgets...
Whatever the side dishes, every panto worthy of the name is sure to contain the following ingredients...
...basic scenario, one (or more) of the ancient fairy tales or legends-Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Aladdin, Babes in the Wood, Dick Whittington, Mother Goose. Sometimes these are weirdly blended: this year's Red Riding Hood features Mother Hubbard and Simple Simon. Most modern admissions to the panto-Pantheon: Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan. The eternal favorite: Cinderella...
...panto cat, goose, monkey, donkey or horse, which romps amidst the audience and is played, as a rule, by some little old man who has donned his moth-eaten pelts every Christmas for the past 40 years...
...always a lady even in panto...