Or, if it stars a honeydew and a cantaloupe, it's called "Melon-drama!"
WOCKA WOCKA!
*laughs!* Wocka, wocka! *throws stuff like rotten tomatoes...and chairs*
Pantomime in the British sence of the word is a very traditional show that tends to be put on at least once in every town or villiage around the whole of the country every January-ish time.
Here's what I found on Wiki:
"Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, in-jokes, audience participation and mild sexual innuendo. Plots are often loosely based on traditional children's stories, the most popular titles being:
Aladdin (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and/or other Arabian Nights tales)
Babes in the Wood (often combined with Robin Hood)
Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella
Dick Whittington, first staged as a pantomime in 1814, based on a 17th century play.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Jack and the Beanstalk
Mother Goose
Peter Pan
Puss in Boots
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White
The form has a number of conventions, some of which have changed or weakened a little over the years.
-The leading male juvenile character (the "principal boy") - almost always played by a young woman.
-An older woman (the pantomime dame - often the hero's mother) is usually played by a man in drag
-Risqué double entendre, often wringing innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases. This is in theory over the heads of the children in the audience.
-Audience participation, including calls of "look behind you!" (or "he's behind you!"), and "oh yes it is!" or "oh no it isn't!" The audience is always encouraged to "boo" the villain.
-A song combining a well-known tune with re-written lyrics. The audience is encouraged to sing the song; often one half of the audience is challenged to sing "their" chorus louder than the other half.
-The pantomime horse or cow, played by two actors in a single costume, one as the head and front legs, the other as the body and back legs.
-The good fairy always enters from the right side of the stage and the evil villain enters from the left. In Commedia Dell 'Arte the right side of the stage symbolized Heaven and the left side symbolized ****.
-The members of the cast throw out sweets to the children in the audience."
If I ever come to America, I'll definatly inroduce the art form there for you folks
Bea
{Did you know that Sir Ian McKellon once played Widow Twanky (Aladdin's Mother) in a pantomime? Amazing.}regard