{"id":2381317,"date":"2026-04-20T13:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2381317"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:51:05","slug":"theatre-says-national-award-is-greatest-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/theatre-says-national-award-is-greatest-honour\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre says national award is &#8216;greatest honour&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wolverhampton Grand Theatre has scooped an award for the best large\u2011scale pantomime in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The theatre, based on Lichfield Street in the city centre, won Best Pantomime over 950 Seats at the UK Pantomime Awards 2026 on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The award was given based on its production of Sleeping Beauty, which starred Danny Beard, Debra Stephenson and Zak Douglas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The team in Wolverhampton all worked so passionately to play their part and delivered above and beyond to make our first pantomime, created by a new management team, the ultimate celebration of pantomime,&#8221; said chief executive Karen Smallwood.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-0 size-full\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-3 right-3 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed bottom-0 left-0 right-0 top-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>The production was created entirely in-house [Danny Kaan]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The show was created entirely in\u2011house by Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, which has described it as &#8220;an innovative celebration of both traditional and modern pantomime&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Solomon Davy, Georgia Ludica\u2011Davies, alongside longstanding resident dame and comic Ian Adams and Tam Ryan, also featured in the award\u2011winning production.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Smallwood added: &#8220;We are so incredibly proud of what we achieved with this pantomime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Wolverhampton has long been considered one of the country&#8217;s most prestigious pantomimes and to have our production of Sleeping Beauty be the one to affirm that title and our team&#8217;s contribution recognised nationally is the greatest honour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The award ceremony, organised by the UK Pantomime Association for the fifth year in a row, was hosted at the Wycombe Swan Theatre in High Wycombe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Other winners included Jeevan Braich and Caitlin O&#8217;Shea as best newcomers, and the Outstanding Achievement in Pantomime award went to Terry Parsons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><em>Follow BBC Wolverhampton &amp; Black Country on <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/curation\/p0cjf1dh?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BBC Sounds;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;BBC Sounds&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><em>BBC Sounds<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BBCBlackCountry\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><em>Facebook<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bbcwm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;X&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><em>X<\/em><\/a><em> and <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcwm\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Instagram&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">More on this story<\/h2>\n<h2 class=\"mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">Related internet links<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wolverhampton Grand Theatre has scooped an award for the best large\u2011scale pantomime in the country. The theatre, based on Lichfield Street in the city centre, won Best Pantomime over 950 Seats at the UK Pantomime Awards 2026 on Sunday night. The award was given based on its production of Sleeping Beauty, which starred Danny Beard, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2381318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[342208,455266,342640,463772,463771,463773],"class_list":["post-2381317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-award-ceremony","tag-danny-beard","tag-debra-stephenson","tag-sleeping-beauty","tag-wolverhampton-grand-theatre","tag-wycombe-swan-theatre"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Theatre-says-national-award-is-greatest-honour.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2381317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381319,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381317\/revisions\/2381319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2381318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2381317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2381317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2381317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}