New Five Year Sevenoaks Panto Deal

The Stag Theatre and Sevenoaks Panto producers have agreed a new deal that will secure pantomime plans for the town until 2030.

Professional pantomime returned to Sevenoaks in 2009 when the Stag reopened its doors to the public. Since then producers Simon Cossons and Jamie Alexander Wilson have been responsible for the festive theatre trip that is now a much loved Christmas tradition for many families, from Sevenoaks and the wider area.

Theatre Manager Andrew Eyre said “Jamie and Simon were part of The Stag’s rescue by the Town Council in 2009 and we have been partners together ever since. Their industry leading innovations and production values alongside the brilliant script and presentation have made The Stag’s pantomime the best in Kent. We chose them after an open commercial tender process and we are very happy to work with them again for the next 5 years.”

The 2024 pantomime season is now on sale, and thousands of people already have their tickets for this years offering, Snow White. The new deal will now see the producers, and of course Silly Billy, leading the creation of the Christmas show for five further seasons, which will take them to twenty-one years at the helm.

Since 2009, the panto team have continued to innovate and reinvent the show, so that whilst fans still get everything they know and love from panto, they also get the highest possible production values, with producer Simon Cossons’ industry leading digital panto set this year receiving a nomination at the UK Pantomime Awards. A live band, an ensemble of professional dancers, and some of the most experienced performers from London’s musical theatre scene, always join the much loved panto pairing of Silly Billy (played by Ant Payne), and Jamie Alexander Wilson (who has also written and directed every show since 2009), to make the show much more than just a pantomime, and often compared to the quality of West End productions.

Much of the creative team behind the productions have also developed their careers as part of Sevenoaks Panto. The show’s Choreographer, Daisy Dean, first appeared in the Stag panto in Mother Goose in 2011. The Stag panto’s Musical Supervisor Sam Hall, who has worked as Musical Director on some of the biggest musicals in the West End, including Standing At The Sky’s Edge and School Of Rock, began his career as the panto seasons drummer, in 2009.

The Sevenoaks Panto producers also provide an extensive theatre outreach and education programme for the theatre, running the Stag Youth Theatre, film weeks and panto schools for young people.