If you (like last-month-puf) have never heard of a panto, let me fill you in with some help from Wikipedia and Gemini:

a pantomime (usually referred to as panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. Modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing.

Pantos are usually performed around Christmas time, and are known for their eccentric costumes and makeup, singalongs, and innuendo.

It generally combines gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale.

The Peter Pan panto in the Presidio Theatre in San Franscisco delivers in spades on all of the above. It’s the fourth year in a row that the Presidio Theatre has a panto, but the first time they’re performing Peter Pan.

The story is told by (Beach Blanket Babylon almunus) Curt Branom as Dolores and Andre Amarotico as Pecker.

The rest of the cast is about as extravagantly dressed as these two:

A special shout out to the antagonist of the Pan story: Rotimi Agbabiaka as Hook (cue loud “boooh” from the audience whenever he appears):

The story is the usual one about Peter Pan: Wendy and her brothers take the Pan-express flight to Neverland, Tink is jealous, and everything works out great (for everyone but Hook) in the end. But in typical panto fashion, chaos reigns supreme in the 120 minute show (including a 20 minute break) and audience participation is very, very, VERY much encouraged (for example: every time a ghost appears, you have to yell “IT’S BEYIND YOU”).

Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear yet: this is incredibly kid friendly theatre, and they make sure to rile up any docile youngster by throwing candy into the audience at regular intervals.

While the story is familiar, some character names, all (dad level) jokes, and most lyrics have been updated to fit with the times and location. This is good fun for everyone, and I welcome the new-to-me) holiday tradition: panto!

All tickets for the show are sold out already, so you might have to wait til the 2025 edition to see a panto in the presidio.