By Mary Damiano

Take a flamenco-dancing Cinderella, toss in cross-dressing actors and mix liberally with the star power of former Monkee Davy Jones, and you’ve got the recipe for a classic panto, a British theatrical tradition brought to life by the Golf Coast Theatre Company.

	Jude Parry as the Good Fairy and Jessica Pacheco in the title role in the Gold Coast Theatre Company’s British panto Cinderella

This is the fifth year Gold Coast is presenting a panto, which is as much a holiday tradition in England as The Nutcracker is here in the States.  This year marks the first time the show will be presented in Palm Beach County and the first time the company has a headliner with the name recognition of Davy Jones.

According to Jude Parry, founder and artistic director of the Gold Coast Theatre Company, several names were bandied about as possibilities for the Cinderella headliner.  Jones’s name evoked the most name recognition with people of all ages, not so much for his tenure with The Monkees, but for a guest shot he did on “The Brady Bunch”, in which Marcia sets out to get Jones, at the time a teen idol, to sing at her prom. 

Although he’s known for the quirky television show “The Monkees” and the band that grew out of it, Jones has had a varied career.  He was a young apprentice jockey from Manchester, England, when he decided to try his hand at show business. He originated the role of the Artful Dodger in Broadway’s Oliver! and received a Tony nomination for his work.  Decades later, he performed in productions of the musical as Fagin.  Jones also tours with his band, aptly named the Davy Jones Band, and still rides horses.  He keeps horses at one of the homes he owns in Indiantown near Stuart, Florida.

Jones will sing the number one Monkees hit “Daydream Believer” in Cinderella.

“Davy Jones is definitely a must-see,” says Parry.  “It would be remiss of anyone to let him leave town and not come see him. 

Having a celebrity headline the show is one of the hallmarks of the panto, and stars of all calibers are happy to participate; no less than Sir Ian McKellan played Twankey in the Old Vic panto of Aladdin in 2005.  For the last few years, the headliner for Gold Coast has been Mike Winters, a comedy and television star in England from the 1950s through the 1970s.  This year, Winters shares the bill with Jones.

The origin of the panto can be traced back to the 16^th century and the commedia dell’arte, a form of comic theatre with exaggerated stock characters. In order to overcome language barriers, traveling theatre troupes relied on physical comedy to tell their fractured fairy tales, and the word panto is short for pantomime.  The first modern panto dates back to 1773, when the Drury Lane Theatre presented Jack and the Giant Killers. Panto as an art form really took shape in Victorian times.  Panto is a Christmas tradition in England, because, Parry says, it was a show meant for the entire family and Christmastime was when families had time to spend together.

	Actor and former Monkee Davy Jones, who stars in Cinderella

Another aspect of a classic panto is the cross-dressing performers. Male characters have played women’s parts centuries because women were not permitted to appear on stage.  But in Victorian times, once women were allowed to act, a new twist developed.  Producers caught on to the fact that the male audience members enjoyed seeing female dancers in close-fitting knit garments and began having actresses play boy roles as an excuse for women to wear tights on stage.

“That was risqué at the time, to be able to see the shape of a lady’s leg,” says Parry.

In Cinderella, men play the roles of the ugly stepsisters, while a woman plays the role of Prince Charming.  That fits in perfectly with the panto cross-dressing tradition:  men play female characters for comic effect, while the male roles played by women tend to be glamorous and gallant.

Parry, who grew up in Liverpool, never saw a panto growing up.

“I’d never been to a panto in my life, says Parry.  “My family was not a theatre-going family.  I’m kind of an anomaly with my profession.”

Still, she knew the genre well, and believed that the panto, with its over-the-top characters, broad situation, and clearly drawn definition of good and evil was just the kind of thing that South Florida audiences would enjoy. She approached Winters, who lives in Miami, and they’ve teamed up yearly to present a traditional panto. 

“What people love about this show is that children get engaged in a way that no other show engages them,” says Parry.  “They participate. They shout back at the actors onstage.  The children are caught up in the magic of the show.”

	Jude Parry, founder and artistic director of the Gold Coast Theatre Company

Gold Coast has performed Cinderella before, but the show has been updated and rewritten each year to reflect its star as well as more topical jokes and gags.

While Cinderella is suitable for audiences of all ages, Parry has her own ideas on how best to enjoy it.

“We all sort of see it through the eyes of children,” Parry says.  “When I’m recommending people to come and see the show, I ask if they have children, and I say if you don’t, rent some.”