Panto season is upon us!
It’s that time of the year again! As Aladdin: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto soars into The Varieties this winter, we take an exclusive look behind the curtain and meet the cast.
Content by Kelly Scotney, Ben Fletcher and Aaron Cawood
Meet the cast of this year’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto – from new faces to returning favourites! Hear from director Rob Salmon, and treat yourself to an exclusive look backstage at the costume fitting and cast meet and greet.
As well as returning favourites – Simon Nock, Kenny Davies, Guy Freeman, Harry F. Brown, Dan Carter-Hope, Maddie Hansen and Max Bower – the cast this year features some extremely talented new faces, in Laura Andresen Guimarães, Lucy Wells, Damien James and Tom Benjamin.
The cast sat down with Leeds TV ahead of a busy day of rehearsals, for which we couldn’t help but have a nosey.
From fart sound effects to rocking riffs, take an exclusive sneak peak at our talented team in the rehearsal space at Prime Studios, and listen to what our new cast members have to say about the process. They say there’s nothing like panto in the industry, and our talented Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto team proves it, dashing from costume fittings to choreography before picking up a guitar and hitting a killer riff.
And our interviews with the cast haven’t stopped there!
First up, we sat down with some of our leading cast to quiz them on some panto-theme quickfire questions. If you had a genie, what would you wish for? What instrument would you like to learn to play? And, most importantly of all – front or back end of the panto cow?
We sat down to chat with our Dame, Widow T (Simon Nock), and Villain, Abanazer (Kenny Davies), to hear about their panto experiences… and a head covered in hand sanitiser?
With opening night fast approaching on Fri 28 November 2025, our cast are hard at work right now putting together a Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto for the ages. But, as you can maybe tell from how they’ve spoken in each interview so far, they really can’t wait to see you all!
Wintertime
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