Arts Diary: Will Marriott

The first is the news that this year’s Bradford Alhambra panto, Snow White, starring Billy Pearce, which finished its seven-week run last Sunday – has broken box office records. The show was seen by 89,600 people during the run and that’s not all.

The theatre this week announced that 2011’s show, Robin Hood, which will also star Billy, has already sold 21,000 seats. The second piece of panto news is that York Theatre Royal’s grand dame Berwick Kaler has announced this week what this year’s panto will be. The York Family Robinson is the title of the perennially popular panto and tickets will go on sale in March. A spokesman for the theatre said: “At the time of going to press there was no sign of a plot, but the gifted author assures us one will arrive 10 minutes before opening night”.

This year there will be at least one more movie version of a Brontë novel, with the release of a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The Brontë Parsonage Museum is recognising the far-reaching influence of the Brontës on the world of movies by holding a very special screening next week. On Friday, February 18, the museum has also organised a screening of the 1943 Hollywood film version of Jane Eyre at the West Lane Baptist Centre, as part of its contemporary arts programme. The film is being screened to celebrate the museum’s acquisition of the original film screenplay, which is now on display at the Parsonage, complete with handwritten notes by its author, British writer Aldous Huxley. The 20th Century Fox production was directed by Robert Stephenson and starred Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. It also briefly featured a very young Elizabeth Taylor in one of her first screen roles. For tickets call the museum on 01535 640188.

The Big Ballet is back – although this year it is a little smaller. The world-famous alternative Russian ballet company where the dancers are comfortably upholstered – has changed shape. The previous weight requirement for the Big Ballet was that all the dancers had to be at least 17 stone, but due to a drop in the average weight of auditionees this has been dropped to 15 stone. Still, pretty big in the ballet world. See the new slimline (relatively) line-up at Wakefield Theatre Royal (March 9) and York Grand Opera House (April 12).