"HE’S BEHIND YOU!”

As thousands of future ticket-buyers, on either side of the Atlantic, enjoy their first live entertainment experiences this week, we celebrate the shared DNA of two seasonal showbiz staples…

Last week, in common with thousands of other inhabitants of these islands, I attended a pantomime, the perfectly pitched ‘children’s version’ of Jack and the Beanstalk at the iconic King’s Head Theatre, Islington.

But try explaining Panto to anyone beyond these shores, and you’ll likely receive that well-known look of bafflement (part pitying, part patronising) usually reserved for those other incomprehensible British institutions, Morris Dancing and The Monarchy.

A few years back, while helping a friend produce a Panto for New York, I was asked what would be the US equivalent?  How they might best present this fairy-tale cocktail of cross-dressing Dames and Principal Boys, topical gags and TV soap ‘stars,’ to American audiences wholly unfamiliar with the art-form;

‘That’s easy,” I replied without a second thought: “WWE.”

My first memory of Panto (and therefore theatre) was back in 1967, when, amid an ‘arctic blast’ chilling London to the marrow, my chain-smoking grandmother led the annual pilgrimage from Fulham to Wimbledon to see Bruce Forsyth in Aladdin.

I can’t recall if there was anyone else in our party (Sorry Sis). In fact, I can’t remember anything of the show apart from one number. And I’ll probably never know why exactly an eight-year-old South London boy should carry the memory of Forsyth singing the achingly-sad ‘September Song’ with him for the rest of his life.

My introduction to WWE was several decades later at London’s O2.

As the UK’s leading short break operator, Superbreak, my then employer, had two thirty seater suites at the world-leading London venue, and as one of the York-based firm’s few capital-based personnel, it often fell to me to host our guests. 

My musical tastes expanded exponentially as a result of this wholly random exposure, ranging from the newly-emergent Pink (who took live musical performance to an entirely new level) to the semi-naked and ill-fated Biffy Clyro (whose exuberant 2013 show should have preceded a triumphant US Tour ...that was cancelled due to illness).

But I drew the line at WWE…

…until my then ten-year-old son got to hear about the WWE London run.

The first thing that hits you at a Panto (apart from glow-sticks and sticky half-eaten sweeties) is the passion (and noise level) with which the young audience members engage with the on-stage antics.

The first thing that hit me about WWE was the dedication with which its young adherents followed their stars ...and the lengths to which the long-suffering accompanying adults would go to in enabling this addiction. (I remember one grandmother explaining how the family couldn’t afford to take their young grandson away on holiday, but that two (consecutive!) nights of live WWE at The O2 more than made up for it).

There were more than a few raised eyebrows in The Business of Pleasure last month (on both sides of the Atlantic) when theatre ticketing giant TodayTix was acquired by global events and experiences provider, MARI, whose Founder and Principal Investor, Ari Emanuel, is CEO and Executive Chairman of TKO which owns WWE (and UFC).

And whatever the principal synergies behind the acquisition, the worlds of Panto and WWE are rich with possibilities for cross-pollination, however far apart they might appear to be at first glance.

Both are foundational gateways to live entertainment experiences.*

Both are cross generational experiences, with strong working-class/blue collar adoption.

Both involve a clearly defined battle between Good and Evil, Heroes and Villains, played out between instantly-recognisable stock characters; Panto’s Principal Boy, Dame and Villain finding counterparts in WWE’s 'Babyface' (hero) 'Heel' (villain) and the morally ambiguous 'Tweener'.

Both directly plead with the audience for an emotional response.

Both rely on a shared contract and active complicity between the on-stage (or on-canvas) performers and the audience:

The audience know what they are seeing is artificial;

The performers know that the audience knows;

Everyone knows it's fake and that’s all part of the fun. 

And of course, both rely heavily on the wholesale application of make-up and melodrama. 

Most interestingly (IMO) both Panto and WWE actively encourage audience participation

and the breaking down of the Fourth Wall ( the 'Fifth Rope' in WWE? ) to the extent that the audience become active c0-collaborators with the cast (or 'The Card' in WWE) **

...In Panto, audience reactions guide pacing, comedy and character timing. 

(on Saturday at The King’s Head one little boy dictated several minutes of the show with his interventions)

...In WWE, crowd reactions can literally reshape character arcs, e.g. a ‘heel’ getting cheered becomes a ‘babyface’ and vice versa.

But it’s not only our future audiences that we may find cheering and jeering at Pantos and WWE.

One of the kids spluttering popcorn over the back of your prized Zegna jacket may one day rewrite our entire understanding of human development, just like Lev Vygotsky, the ‘Father of Russian psychology’ did in the 1920s and '30s.***

‘...There are strong grounds to believe that Vygotsky’s theatrical background had a life-long influence on his ideas and on the theory he created.  Thus according to M.G. Yaroshevsky, Vygotsky set the goal of “creating psychology in terms of drama.” …Rather than understanding a stage of development through the ‘ladder’ metaphor associated with Piaget, Yaroshevsky suggests that Vygotsky had a dramaturgical notion in mind when he invoked the word ‘stage.’  The idea was that of a stage where two planes - the personal and the social – were in play. When these two planes collided, as a result of incommensurability between personal understandings and social situations, then a reforming of both may occur.’

The most important dramatic arc in the great story of human development, as Vygotsky saw it, is, arguably, the way a child moves from social speech (to communicate with others) to private, egocentric speech (self-directed but out loud) to inner speech (the silent monologue of our conscious thought).

And while you can, and do, reverse-engineer this formula in the comfort of your own homes, e.g. “Come on David, finish this blooming article!” for the full-on, full-fat, Fourth-Wall-shattering experience, book now for your local Panto or go ringside (and go bananas) at WWE.

DT 5 December, 2025

* ‘There is consistent evidence that people who were encouraged to attend and take part in cultural activities as a child are more likely to participate in and attend cultural activities in adulthood, compared to those who were not encouraged to do so. This evidence remains true even when other factors such as education, gender, age, income deprivation and rurality are accounted for.’  Child’s Play: The Links Between Childhood Encouragement and Adult Engagement in Arts and Culture, Hupert, Scottish Government, 2010

**In live music, the ‘links’ between songs also serve to break down the Fourth Wall. John Mayer opened his set at The O2 saying he didn’t talk between songs, whereas Taylor Swift at The O2 spoke more than she sang. By acquiring TodayTix, MARI now own Secret Cinema, which works by demolishing the Fourth Wall entirely and taking the audience into the staged world of a film or show. 

***The Concept of Drama in Vygotsky’s Theory: Application in Research, O. Rubtsova, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, H. Daniels, University of Oxford, Vol 12 Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2016