Celebrate 15 years of strictly adult fun with the hilarious cast of the latest Excess All Areas‘ new pantomime, Kitten in Heels, populated by some of cabaret’s finest performers offering an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza of silly.
“Exuberant, unique and exhilarating (…) the gags came so fast, there was little time to grab a breath” – Boyz Magazine
Puss is disturbed. Must she really wear those heels in order to serve her master? Surely, things have moved on for women? It’s the early 1900s for god’s sake. But, heels or flats, she will be the saviour of Dick as he seeks his fortune on the streets of London. Behind every good man, there’s a better woman.
Meanwhile, Dame Choo is using her feminine wiles to charm her landlord, King Rat, from the ever-increasing rent on Shoes The Chemist, and her daughter Jenny is torn between romance with Dick and a more exotic, unusual offering from an exotic, unusual lady…
“A manic panto with added naughtiness guaranteed to make you laugh your party hat off!” – Grumpy Gay Critic
Excess All Areas’ yearly pantomime always features the crème de la crème of London’s LGBTQ scene, and this year is no exception: director Vanessa Pope is programming the Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Festival; and performer Fancy Chance was Miss Alternative World 2009! The show is choreographed for the first time by the founder of hugely popular burlesque troupe The Folly Mixtures – Sarah-Louise Twist, AKA Ooh La Lou.
Excess All Areas’ annual Christmas offering provides an adult (but not necessarily grown-up) alternative to the standard seasonal fare. Also have 20% off your Christmas dinner at neighbouring pub The Priory Arms before the show, the enjoy a drink at LOST Theatre’s award-winning bar afterwards! Don’t let the kids have all the fun this Christmas!
Kitten in Heels runs Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 December, Friday 18 to Sunday 20 December 2015.
Excess All Areas director and cabaret king Paul L Martin
15 years of Excess
Excess All Areas has been (ahem) mounting adult pantomimes since 2001. Founder and producer Paul L Martin offers the Mates a brief history of excess…
We produced our first Pantomime on the Battersea Barge back in December 2001 with one single solitary performance of Cinderella, written and directed by Simon James Green. The Battersea Barge was to be our pantomime home for the next 13 years.
Born out of a desire to bring Christmas cheer to an anarchic crowd whose tastes were not sated by traditional panto, our annual offerings have seen cabaret favourites, comedians and, sometimes, even trained actors lampooning much-loved fairy stories and Disney movies whilst people were served chicken goujons in a basket.
In 2006, Time Out said of our shows “expect panto to be lovingly coddled and grossly debased all at the same time, with innuendo so blatant it should come with a warning.” And we decided to take that as a compliment.
For five years, our show was Time Out “Critic’s Choice” and listed as one the London Paper‘s ‘Top Three Things to Do’. In 2008, we were officially complained about to the European Union and discussed by Kirsty Wark and Grayson Perry on Newsnight Review.
Over the years, our pantomimes have attracted the talents of people now far too famous to talk to us:
- Shazia Mirza joined us before appearing on Have I Got News For You
- Tony Award nominee Euan Morton was part of the fold before his West End and Broadway success in Boy George musical Taboo
- Laurie Hagen and Piff the Magic Dragon stormed our stage before becoming the toast of Las Vegas in award-winning Rose, Rabbit, Lie
- Starlight Express star Gavin Ashbarry skated in a few times to save the day
- David Menkin gave us his Dick before starring in Hollywood movie Zero Dark Thirty
- celebrated cabaret artistes Sarah-Louise Young and Dusty Limits were involved from early on.
In 2012 we began putting on an annual summer panto/murder mystery and have so far offered Murder on the Batteresea Barge and Dial M for Death. Dial was to be our last show on the barge as, with a heavy heart, we decided to move on to pastures new.
We moved to the Lost Theatre for Christmas 2014 where we return this year. So, here’s to 15 more years of campery and carrying on and here’s to new horizons in new places (with old jokes).
15 years – and counting – of adults-only pantomime
Panto timeline
- 2001: Cinderella – with a cameo from comic Shazia Mirza
- 2002: ‘Big’ Dick Whittington
- 2003: A Christmas Carol – the final year for Simon James Green as writer and director
- 2004: Sleeping Beauty
- 2005: Aladdin
2006: Lucky the Cow’s Pantomime Cavalcade – starring Gavin Ashbarry - 2007: Jack & the Lampshade – Paul’s first year also as writer
- 2008: Snow White & The Seven Signs of Ageing
- 2009: Peter Pandemonium – the team is joined by Laurie Hagen (now toast of Las Vegas and touring currently in Club Swizzle in Australia)
- 2010: Cinderella and the Glass Ceiling – the year the show went to Latitude Festival
- 2011: Red Riding Hoodie – with Burlesque starlet Fancy Chance in titular role
- 2012: Alice in Poundland – the last year (after 12) featuring the award-winning compere and cabaret personality Dusty Limits
- 2013: Pilates in the Caribbean – the last one staged at Battersea Barge
- 2014: Booty and the Biatch – MD Birgitta Kenyon joins as the show moves to its new home at the LOST Theatre
- 2015: Kitten in Heels – choreographer Sarah-Louise Buckle, of the much-loved burlesque troupe The Folly Mixtures, joins the team
