REVIEW: Sleeping Beauty at Sunderland Empire

Sleeping Beauty

Sunderland Empire

Until Sunday 4 January 2026 

Sleeping Beauty is a charming and entertaining traditional pantomime that has the best pace in the North East. So there's never a dull moment in a show that's not afraid to make the audience a part of the action. 

Laura Main, from Call The Midwife, is the Fairy Snowflake and starts the fairytale narrative in rhyme. Soon the audience get a chance to boo Carabosse (Jaordan Lee Davies), the baddie who will place a curse on the young Princess Rose (Evelyn Hoskins) as she wasn't invited to the christening party. Pete Peverley is the King who bans spinning wheels in order to stop his daughter dying on her 18th birthday.

Fast forward 18 years and Vester the court Jester is the Princess's best mate. Tom Whalley, who wrote the additional material to Jon Monie’s script, ensures that the show keeps the jokes flowing, especially when his on stage mother Rorina the cleaner (Miss Rory) is on stage. A feature of this show is the on stage chemistry between the cast that makes the humour feel much less forced than some other pantos. The slip ups seem genuine moments of shared fun. These two really work well together, and in giving this panto a unique feel, they have created something special. No wonder they’re already on the poster for next year’s show.

The show has a different range of songs compared to the other pantos, songs have been chosen that fit the casts’ voices rather than because they're in vogue. Having said that, we still have the K-Pop Demon Hunters number.

Here at the NETG we know Sleeping Beauty can sing having witnessed her nail the role of Carrie in one of our favourite musicals. Evelyn Hoskins gets a chance here to show her charming side too. It was nice to see her character get a chance to flip roles with the Prince Vincent (David Ribi) too. The Prince doesn't come across as a lame duck either.

The pace was tight, helped by the use of some projections that helped speed up the exposition when necessary. This panto sticks to storytelling and has some of the classic panto elements for the audience to laugh or shout about. Rather than giving us a glitzy variety show, we get characters that we, as an audience,  can get behind: cheering or booing as we go. Add live musicians, dancers, a great set and the fact the flyman is kept busy and you have a great evening's entertainment.

We are really lucky in getting to see all the pantos and to compare the special experiences that they offer. A question we get asked is always “which one was best?” Well it was tight battle this year and until tonight it was a dead heat between two… but in our final review of the year the Empire has finally picked up our gong for most entertaining panto of the year. First time winners…well  done.

But that's our opinion. We know folk can get tribal about their favourite panto and that’s part of the fun.

Review: Stephen Oliver

Photos: David James Wood

🎟️ Sleeping Beauty

📍 Sunderland Empire
📅 12 December 2025 – 4 January 2026
🎫 Tickets from £15 at ATGTickets.com/Sunderland
(*A £3.95 transaction fee applies to online bookings.)