Potted Panto Tickets in London at the Apollo Theatre

What Tickets Cost

Tickets start from around £30 at every performance, including Christmas Eve and the New Year's Day shows, and that's the price you pay, all-in.

Booking for the whole family, or for ten or more? Call us on 020 7193 9050 and we'll try to get the whole party in one row.

Performance Schedule

Most performances are mornings and afternoons, plus Sunday evenings at 7:30pm and a few evening shows at 7pm. These are the performances we have on sale:

Book Potted Panto Tickets

Potted Panto is at the Apollo for four weeks over Christmas, with tickets from around £30. All-in: the price you pick is the price you pay.

Pick your date and seats online, or call us on 020 7193 9050 if you'd rather book by phone.

Best Seats for Potted Panto

For children, the centre Stalls: close to the action, and well within range of the sweets. The Dress Circle is the easy climb and the Balcony is the one to skip. There's more on every level in the Tickets and Best Seats tab.

Where to Sit for Potted Panto

The Apollo is a small theatre, with 844 seats over four levels, so nobody is far from the stage. For a panto, where the children are shouting back and the cast are throwing sweets, being close matters more than seeing the whole stage from above.

Stalls

The best level for children. The centre from about row D back to row K is close, and the rake carries you over the row in front. The Stalls are where the audience gets most involved, and the front rows are the ones most likely to get wet.

There's no aisle down the middle. Rows G to Q run 22 seats wide, which is handy for a big family in one line, but you get in and out from the ends, so if a small child might need the toilet, take seats near the end of a row.

The four short rows at the very back, T to X, are central and cheaper, but the level above cuts off the top of the stage.

Dress Circle

Only 12 steps up, so it's the easiest level to reach. You see the whole stage from here. Stay central, because the seats at the ends of the rows face away from the stage, and the legroom is tightest in rows A and B.

Grand Circle

41 steps up and cheaper than the Dress Circle, with the whole stage in view.

Balcony

80 steps up and no lift, so think twice with little legs or anyone who finds stairs hard. It's usually the cheapest level in the building.

Accessible Performances

No BSL-interpreted, audio-described, captioned or relaxed performance has been announced for Potted Panto. The Stalls can be reached step-free by a platform stair lift. Access bookings are handled by the Apollo's own team, not by us.

Who's Potted Panto For?

• Families with children of 6 and over, including children seeing their first panto. The rules get explained as it goes along, from when to shout back to "it's behind you".
• Grown-ups who've seen plenty of pantos. As ever, there's a second layer of jokes the children won't catch, and the topical ones change every year.
• A day out in town at Christmas. More than half the performances are in the morning or afternoon, which leaves time for lunch, the shops or the lights.

Not for you if you want a big, glossy panto with a TV star, a full chorus and a flying carpet. This is mainly two comedians, a few helpers and a lot of hats, and it's all the funnier for it. For the big-budget version, see the London Palladium.

What to Expect at Potted Panto

• It's short. 70 minutes with no interval, for ages 6 and up, so it suits children who'd get restless at a two-hour panto.
• Your children will be part of it. Expect shouting back at the stage, sweets thrown into the audience, a singalong at the end, and a 3D scene where the whole audience ducks and leans. The Guardian called it "a really great piece of audience participation" back in 2010, and the ducking and leaning is still in it.
• The Stalls may get wet. Water, and sometimes fake snow, has been sprayed over the front of the audience in past years. Just a little bit, don't worry!
• The adults get their own jokes. Double meanings go over the children's heads, and there's a running gag about Dick Whittington's name that you can probably guess.
• It's low on scenery and high on silliness. Costume changes happen in seconds, often with nothing more than a hat.
• The stories are the ones you know. Six classics get the treatment: Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Aladdin. Jeff wants them done properly, Dan keeps steering towards A Christmas Carol, and the finale puts Abanazar and Scrooge on stage together.

What the Reviews Said

The show stays much the same from year to year, apart from the topical jokes and the supporting cast, so earlier reviews are a fair guide.

What families get out of it

When it last played the Apollo, in 2022, Terry Eastham gave it five stars on LondonTheatre1: "Potted Panto is very skilfully written and while it may look like mayhem on the stage, it is exceptionally well performed." He also found "jokes for all ages with references soaring above the children's heads and causing the adults to guffaw loudly".

The Reviews Hub, at the Apollo the same year, wrote that "Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner's show is as much a part of Christmas as the stories they parody."

Andy Curtis of London Pub Theatres took his own children at Wilton's in 2023 and gave it four stars: "It is certainly good fun, my kids enjoyed it, sadly picking up and understanding the adult jokes these days".

For first-timers

Simon Finn of Everything Theatre, at Wilton's in 2025, wrote that "Panto conventions are lovingly explained for newcomers" and called it "a genuine family show where nobody will feel short changed." (That year Gary Trainor stood in for Jefferson Turner.)

What the critics didn't like

Nobody should book it expecting a lavish production. The Telegraph in 2010, and the Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage in 2020, gave it three stars. Nick Curtis in the Standard called it "a low-key, rackety and cheerful affair" with "minimal props and polish". Several reviewers found the last section, where Aladdin and A Christmas Carol get mixed together, the weakest part, though others enjoyed it.

Potted Panto News

Potted Panto is back at the Apollo Theatre from 6 December 2026 to 3 January 2027, its first West End run since 2022. The supporting cast is still to be announced, and the theatre says more dates may be added if there's demand.

Cast and Creative Team

Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, the pair behind Potted Potter, play Dan and Jeff. They wrote the show with Richard Hurst, who directs it. The rest of the 2026 cast is still to be announced.

Potted Panto Cast

• Daniel Clarkson plays Dan. He co-created the Potted shows, including Potted Potter, the Harry Potter spoof, and co-wrote and played Judge Smudge in CBBC's Monster Court.
• Jefferson Turner plays Jeff. He presented on CBBC alongside Clarkson, and the pair have appeared together on Blue Peter and Big Brother's Little Brother.

The supporting cast for 2026 hasn't been announced yet.

Clarkson and Turner first played Dan and Jeff at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2010. In 2025, at Wilton's Music Hall, Clarkson played it with Gary Trainor instead. Turner is back for 2026.

Creative Team

Written by Daniel Clarkson, Jefferson Turner and Richard Hurst, and directed by Richard Hurst. Set by Simon Scullion, costumes by Nicky Bunch, lighting by Tim Mascall, sound by Tom Lishman and music by Phil Innes.

Getting to the Apollo Theatre

The Apollo is at 31 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7EZ, on the north side of the street next door to the Lyric.

Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines) is 3 to 4 minutes' walk: come out towards Shaftesbury Avenue and the theatre is on your left. Leicester Square (Northern and Piccadilly lines) is about the same distance. Charing Cross is the nearest mainline station, about 8 to 10 minutes away.

The 14 and 19 buses stop on Shaftesbury Avenue within a minute of the door. At Piccadilly Circus you also have the 9, 12, 23, 88, 94, 139, 159 and 453.

Arrive 15 to 20 minutes before, no later. There are bag checks on the way in, and with children it's worth a toilet stop before you sit down, because there's no interval. The Stalls are 22 steps down from the foyer, and the theatre doesn't list any toilets on the Dress Circle.

More about the building is in our Apollo Theatre guide.

Potted Panto FAQs