King's Theatre Pantomime King's Theatre Pantomime The pantomime at the King's has been running annually since 1971. Before that a few pantomimes were staged from 1964/65 after Glasgow Corporation bought the theatre from Howard & Wyndham Ltd. Pantomime in Scotland has always been popular, particularly in Glasgow, and there has been a long tradition developed from the 1860s. From the 1970s pantomime productions for the King's were funded jointly by the City Councils of Glasgow and Edinburgh and staged in both cities. Stanley Baxter one of Britain's top pantomime dames performed at the King's in the 1980s in Cinderella, written and directed by
Pantomime to the marriage of the young lovers, she would transport the whole company to a grand final scene. Despite its visible decline by 1836, the pantomime still fought to stay alive. After 1843, when theatres other than the original patent theatres were permitted to perform spoken dialogue, the importance of the silent harlequinade began to decrease, while the importance of the fairy-tale part of the pantomime increased. Two writers who helped to elevate the importance and popularity of the fairy-tale portion of the pantomime were James Planché and Henry James Byron. They emphasized puns and humorous word play, a tradition