Newark Palace Theatre's centenary year panto, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, cancelled – but the show will go on next year

The Palace Theatre Newark has announced that its 2020 pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, will not go ahead this year.

Instead, the production will run in December 2021.

Business manager for heritage and culture, Carys Coulton-Jones, said: "We have been considering our options around panto since very early in lockdown but in recent weeks it has become clear that to give our customers the high standard of experience that we pride ourselves on in a covid-secure way would not make the production financially viable.

“it’s especially disappointing for us as we appointed Jordan Productions as our new pantomime production company at the start of this year and the whole team has been looking forward to seeing their show round off our centenary year.

"But the silver lining to postponement is that we have another 12 months to work with Jordan Productions to present an incredible debut from them at our venue."

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will now run from December 7 to 31, 2021.

Ticket holders for this year’s dates will be contacted by the Palace by letter in the coming days.

Anyone who has outstanding queries about their tickets after receiving this letter should contact palace@nsdc.info in the first instance.

David Lloyd, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, added, “It saddens me that this pandemic has hit every single one of us so badly.

"Pantomime is a family tradition that brings with it festive cheer and merriment - it brings to life on stage a performance for generations to enjoy together.

"It is with regret that the 2020 pantomime, along with a huge host of wonderful events, have had to be postponed until 2021.

"The Palace team are working hard to schedule some alternative arts events which could be managed in a covid-secure way and I know, whatever they deliver, it will be lovely to welcome our residents back into the theatre.

"I look forward to the day when we can light up the stage again with music, dance, song, theatre and panto.

"I am acutely aware, however, that it is a very difficult time for theatre venues up and down the country.

"I want to wish every theatre the best of luck for the future and hope that the pandemic doesn’t take too many theatres down with it.”

Chris Jordan, of Jordan Productions said, “We are of course, hugely disappointed not to be able to bring our spectacular production of Snow White to the beautiful Palace Theatre this Christmas.

"However, we are already making plans for our 2021 production and we are really looking forward to continuing to work with the theatre's team in order to deliver a laugh out loud, magical pantomime that is really worth the wait."

The Palace Theatre’s last live performance was in March prior to lockdown and whilst the pantomime postponement means that traditional live performances are unlikely to resume in 2020, the team is working on other ways to open the building to the public.

Carys said: "We really miss our audiences. We had so many plans for our centenary year this year and we’d dearly love to have some visitors back before the year is out.

"We have reopened our café this month and we hope we’ll be able to invite patrons back in the auditorium too."