Berkshire


<p>Dame by night, funeral director by day, our favourite 6ft saucepot Paul Morse is back and hurtling into his tenth year at <a href="https://whatsonreading.com/venues/hexagon/whats-on/sleeping-beauty-christmas-panto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Reading Hexagon</a> for another season of panto mayhem between 9 Dec to 7 Jan 2024. This year he plays Nanny Bubbles in the beloved classic, <em>Sleeping Beauty</em>, bringing with him his trademark flair, fabulous frocks, and all out pandemonium. </p>



<p>Between rehearsing cream pie lobbing and a legion of outfit changes that could give even Beyoncé a run for her money, we grabbed Paul for a cheeky chinwag.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1500" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6.jpg" alt="Paul Morse Panto Hexagon Reading" class="wp-image-57846" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6-533x800.jpg 533w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6-667x1000.jpg 667w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6-267x400.jpg 267w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-at-Reading-Hexagon-2022-6-350x525.jpg 350w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-so-you-re-playing-nanny-bubbles-in-sleeping-beauty-next-month-can-you-tell-me-a-bit-about-her"><strong>So you’re playing Nanny Bubbles in Sleeping Beauty next month – can you tell me a bit about her?</strong></h4>



<p>So Nanny Bubbles is the mother of Justy the Jester, played by Justin Fletcher, and I think what people can expect from, especially Justy and I&#8217;s partnership, is the chaos and mayhem that will ensue. I can only imagine we&#8217;ll be doing some very well loved routines that the audience have requested time and time again.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Oooh, spill the goss</strong>&#8230;</h4>



<p>We may or may not see a return of our award-winning Balloon ballet. We didn&#8217;t do it last year, but we referenced it and the audience booed because we didn&#8217;t do it. They just love it and all you hear is waves of laughter. Even now I walk through Reading dressed as me and I just hear people going, &#8220;balloon.&#8221; It has to be the most requested routine I&#8217;ve ever done.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>How are panto rehearsals treating you so far?</strong></h4>



<p>Well, I haven&#8217;t got the script yet. Justin&#8217;s writing it this year, and there&#8217;s a great long process to putting it together. He knows me and what I like so it&#8217;s going to be a really personalised script which is lovely.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Wow so no rehearsals yet! You&#8217;ve got lots to do then!</strong></h4>



<p>Yes there&#8217;s a lot of panic. I&#8217;ve got lashes, heels… Nanny Bubbles is very behind. We rehearse for an intensive two weeks to put it all together. The good thing is I lose a lot of weight, so basically this is my workout for the year.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What goes on at rehearsals then?</strong></h4>



<p>Justin and I especially have lots and lots of comic routines, as well as the dances and songs. They&#8217;re very well planned, you know, they look chaotic but it&#8217;s planned chaos, so we have to know where we&#8217;re moving at what point and where the custard pie is going in the air. It&#8217;s just about re-rehearsing that so it has a nice flow to it.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1250" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse.jpg" alt="Paul Morse Panto Hexagon Reading" class="wp-image-57858" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-640x800.jpg 640w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-320x400.jpg 320w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-768x960.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-420x525.jpg 420w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What’s your pre-show routine?</strong></h4>



<p>I always have a Gregg&#8217;s breakfast because someone&#8217;s got to keep Nanny going. Then I start with my makeup which takes about 25 minutes, and halfway through I go off and do a vocal warm up with the rest of the crew. I always have a photograph of Princess Margaret on my dresser in her jewels, then just before I go on stage, with whoever is in my room at that point, we curtsy her.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>That&#8217;s brilliant! Where did that come from? Why Princess Margaret?</strong></h4>



<p>I just think Princess Margaret was so sassy. She was more royal than The Royals, you know, she really was that kind of diva. I&#8217;ve been doing that for donkey&#8217;s years and it started when I was performing at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe. I had to make my entrance through the audience, and there was a plaque which had been unveiled by Princess Margaret so as a joke I curtseyed, and then that was it. I thought, &#8220;Oh gosh, I&#8217;ve got to do this every show&#8221;. Now because of superstition I have to do it, and if I haven&#8217;t, someone will run and get me a picture of her just so I can drop a curtsy. </p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Rumour has it you always have the most costume changes. How many have you got lined up this year?</strong></h4>



<p>I think this year I&#8217;ve got ten or eleven and that&#8217;s full costume &#8211; all shoes, tights, wigs, jewellery. The whole lot changes. Thankfully I have a great dresser and the quickest change we&#8217;ve done, I think, is about 25 to 30 seconds. That&#8217;s why I lose so much weight because I&#8217;m running around like a headless chicken!</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>How are the outfits looking?</strong></h4>



<p>They&#8217;re really lovely this year. Outlandish and colourful as always.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Have you ever had any wardrobe malfunctions on stage?</strong></h4>



<p>All the time. Especially in the quick changes where sometimes it&#8217;s so fast and you&#8217;ve just got to go on stage. I have gone on and felt the dress starting to unpop at the back. You think, &#8220;Oh no, I need to turn my back to the audience&#8221;, but I can&#8217;t because the dress is open. I fall over a lot. I wear five inch heels &#8211; I&#8217;m six foot two in real life, so that&#8217;s always quite precarious, me tottering around at almost seven foot. It&#8217;s a hazardous job being a dame. I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;m insured for this, hang on a minute!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-panto-1.jpg" alt="Paul Morse Panto Hexagon Reading" class="wp-image-57848" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-panto-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-panto-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-panto-1-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-panto-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-Morse-panto-1-787x525.jpg 787w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Do you have a fave festive tune to get you in the mood?</strong></h4>



<p>I actually like the older ones &#8211; anything nice, energetic, and fun. We have them piped into our dressing rooms because in the theatre they have Christmas music before the show so I have my monitor on in my dressing room so I can hear all the songs and you know, you kind of set your routine to what song you&#8217;re up to. So that buoys me up for the show.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Are the comic routines as fun to perform as they look?</strong></h4>



<p>Oh yes! The nice thing is, because we do routines the audiences who have been many times are familiar with, when Justin and I unfurl the big plastic sheet on stage you hear everyone go, &#8220;Ohhh&#8221;, and then they start putting their coats on. They know the custard pies are coming. It&#8217;s really lovely to perform and to hear the reaction from the children and the adults who are all entertained.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Do pantos get you in the festive spirit or by the end just make you want to hide away behind a tin of quality streets?</strong></h4>



<p>By kind of mid-January you are thinking, &#8220;Ah, gosh.&#8221; But the Panto doesn&#8217;t leave my body for a good few months after the show &#8211; I still find glitter on my body in March and I didn&#8217;t even put it there! But I feel the most festive during the Christmas Eve show because the kids are so excited. It&#8217;s really nice we&#8217;re part of family&#8217;s tradition year on year. Although it is a bit disheartening now when kids come to me and go, &#8220;Oh, we saw you when we were 13&#8221;, and they&#8217;ve now got children and they&#8217;re 6&#8217;3 and we&#8217;re just like, &#8220;Oh, gosh we&#8217;re that old. What happened?&#8221;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1027" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41.png" alt="Paul Morse Panto Hexagon Reading" class="wp-image-55704" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41.png 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41-779x800.png 779w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41-974x1000.png 974w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41-389x400.png 389w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41-768x789.png 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-11.22.41-511x525.png 511w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>So you’ve been doing pantos for 20 years now. Is there a favourite</strong> <strong>production you’ve ever done?</strong></h4>



<p>Cinderella&#8217;s always a magical show with the flying horses at the end. When I first started, we used to use real horses so when Cinderella was taken off on the carriage we had real ponies trotting her away, which was great, but not so nice when you&#8217;re waving her off and the horses have left you a steaming pile of poop behind. You think, &#8220;Oh, we&#8217;ve got to dance on that now&#8221;.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Do you still get nervous before going on stage?</strong></h4>



<p>I still get nervous, even after 20 years, I still get nervous. You know, Justin and I have worked together now for eight years and this is my tenth year at The Hexagon in Reading so I feel it&#8217;s very familiar but I do still get nervous.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Justin Fletcher aka Mr Tumble is an absolute legend – what’s it like working with him?</strong></h4>



<p>It&#8217;s really great and the relationship we&#8217;ve developed over the years just enhances our performance. We&#8217;re good friends and we&#8217;ve got to a point now where we know what the other one is going to do and what&#8217;s going to work. Obviously he writes great children&#8217;s comedy anyway through his TV shows and now that&#8217;s been injected into the pantos, keeping them modern, fresh and up to date as well which is really important for families that they&#8217;re seeing current shows. We&#8217;re so in sync with each other and that&#8217;s great for a double act.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What&#8217;s the best thing about doing pantos?</strong></h4>



<p>Losing weight. Ha! Honestly I don&#8217;t know what Christmas is like without panto. Panto for me means Christmas. I think the audience interaction is my favourite part because I&#8217;m the only character that can break that fourth wall and talk to them directly. And that&#8217;s great. We don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going to happen when I start talking to people.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>So you&#8217;re not going to be retiring from Damehood any time soon? </strong></h4>



<p>Not unless you know something I don&#8217;t! I&#8217;ll keep going as long as the audiences want me in Reading. I&#8217;d be very lost at Christmas without it, I wouldn&#8217;t quite know what to do. I&#8217;d be on my own hammering down the door at The Purple Turtle!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="749" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/REading-Panto-Paul-Morse-and-Justin-Fletcher_1000x750.jpg" alt="Paul Morse Panto Hexagon Reading" class="wp-image-18315" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/REading-Panto-Paul-Morse-and-Justin-Fletcher_1000x750.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/REading-Panto-Paul-Morse-and-Justin-Fletcher_1000x750-150x112.jpg 150w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/REading-Panto-Paul-Morse-and-Justin-Fletcher_1000x750-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/REading-Panto-Paul-Morse-and-Justin-Fletcher_1000x750-768x575.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/11/REading-Panto-Paul-Morse-and-Justin-Fletcher_1000x750-668x500.jpg 668w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Have you had any standout, hilarious audience interactions over the years?</strong></h4>



<p>I had a lady one year who was on the phone, so I stopped the show, took her phone and started having a chat with the person on the other end. Another time this man was asleep in the audience so I crept down, moved everyone out the way, tapped him on the shoulder and said, &#8220;You enjoying the show?&#8221; which scared him. It&#8217;s great for me as a performer because that keeps me on my toes and also for the audience because it&#8217;s fresh for them and something completely unique to that performance. I love going off script.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>So you’re a dame by night, but by day you’re a funeral director. That’s a bit of a change! Tell me about that?</strong></h4>



<p>Yeah, Morse Funeral Services is my company, based in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. When I left drama school, you know, you need a part-time job. I was a terrible waiter and my sister&#8217;s in the funeral profession as well so I started working there between tours and shows. It was my part time job and it just went from there. I get just as much satisfaction looking after families as I do performing.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Have your two worlds ever clashed?</strong></h4>



<p>Well, I went to arrange a funeral for a family from Reading once. I arrived at the house and when they opened the door the first thing they said was, &#8220;Balloon&#8221;. It was like, oh gosh okay, here we go.</p>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What are you most looking forward to about this year&#8217;s panto at The Hexagon?</strong></h4>



<p>Last year we still had a bit of COVID restrictions hanging around with distancing and all that sort of stuff so I think this year, it&#8217;s all gone and we&#8217;re completely back to normal. The full children&#8217;s company, the full cast, the meet and greets. It&#8217;s alway so lovely we get to go and see audience members at the stage door afterwards and sign autographs. I can&#8217;t wait!</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="996" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-morse-4.png" alt="Paul Morse Panto Hexagon Reading" class="wp-image-57882" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-morse-4.png 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-morse-4-800x797.png 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-morse-4-400x398.png 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-morse-4-768x765.png 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/berkshire/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Paul-morse-4-527x525.png 527w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p><em>Catch Paul in Sleeping Beauty at The Hexagon Reading 9 Dec to 7 Jan 2024. Tickets available to buy <a href="https://whatsonreading.com/venues/hexagon/whats-on/sleeping-beauty-christmas-panto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</em></p>


Muddy meets panto royalty Dame Paul Morse

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