Norwich Theatre Royal postpones 2020 Christmas Panto

Norwich Theatre Royal has this morning announced that their 2020 Christmas Panto Dick Whittington and His Cat will be rescheduled to Christmas 2021.

Norwich Theatre Royal will reschedule Dick Whittington and His Cat their Christmas Panto that was due to play this December to December 2021 due to the continued closure of the theatre due to COVID-19.

The theatre made the following statement:- "It is with very heavy hearts that we have had to make the decision to postpone our 2020 Pantomime Dick Whittington & His Cat to Christmas 2021.

We know this will be a huge disappointment to our loyal pantomime audience who look forward to this traditional Christmas family treat and this is what saddens us most.

The huge financial losses we are currently experiencing due to an extended period of closure, as well as there having been no government support package for theatres, mean that we are no longer able to commit to such a large scale production because it has such substantial up-front costs.

COVID-19 has made a huge dent in future sales for all shows at all of our venues including ticket sales for our pantomime which are significantly lower than usual.  This makes the risk of staging the pantomime too great and it is clear from our audience surveys that the government’s early warning to avoid theatres and the prolonged wait for any re-opening plan has dented public confidence in returning to our venues.

Our commitment to our audiences throughout the year, and especially at Christmas, is to deliver magical and brilliant experiences and we do not feel this would be possible in the current circumstances. To proceed would do a disservice to our audiences who have been so loyal and supportive at this unprecedented time.

We are planning to stage our new production of Dick Whittington & His Cat for the Theatre Royal over Christmas 2021 and it promises to be our best panto ever.

All current ticket holders will be contacted directly to transfer their tickets to an equivalent performance in 2021. Our Box Office team is currently working reduced hours and remotely so we politely ask bookers to refrain from contacting us by phone but wait to be contacted within the next few weeks.

Dick Whittington & His Cat was due to play at Norwich Theatre Royal from Tue 8 Dec – Sun 10 Jan. The new dates for Christmas 2021 will be announced shortly."

Whilst many theatre around the country had been hoping that Pantomime season would go ahead, it is becoming clear that the precarious situation now faced by theatre is about to become a lot worse as the annual poantomime represents a significant amount of each venues operating capital from profit earned each year.