Help for panto fans is at hand. Oh yes it is.

Hot on the disappointing news that this year's main Sittingbourne panto has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Paul Gostling is running his own.

The former Borden Grammar School pupil is staging a socially-distanced version of the children's favourite at the Woodstock Club in Broadoak Road.

It will run from Monday, December 21 to Wednesday, December 30, with as many as four shows on some days.

Paul said: "I noticed that the Sittingbourne pantomime at the Swallows Leisure Centre has been postponed until next year and so this will be the only professional panto in the area, to my knowledge."

The hour-long show which features a live band has been co-written by Paul who is also the panto's musical director. It stars Emma Kinney as Cinderella and Alex Dunk as Prince Charming.

This summer Paul co-produced the oddly-named new musical Urine Town at the same venue but outside. A cast of 12 performed the comedy which was about the country running out of water.

Paul said: "I'd wanted to do something like that since the Government announced outdoor performances could happen. As I live in Sittingbourne, I wanted to bring something to the area and be one of the first to get people back watching live theatre.”

It was directed and co-produced by Alix Burbridge and choreographed by Abi Staker who are also behind the panto.

Paul started studying drums at eight and after two years of private lessons joined Yamaha Music School in Canterbury. He graduated with a first class honours degree from the University of Kent in 2018 where he focussed on how new technology was changing the industry

He is also a keyboards player and has performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End, on stage at Disneyland Paris’ Disney Village arena and in musicals at Maidstone 's Hazlitt Theatre, the Theatre Royal, Margate , the Arden Theatre, Faversham and the Avenue Theatre in Sittingbourne.

In 2017 he was associate musical director for the Peter Pan panto at the Maidstone TV Studios and next summer he is booked to be musical director on a UK tour of The Jungle Book.

Panto tickets are £10 from www.ticketsource.co.uk/cinderella

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