Dick Whittington Pantomime Script Spotlight

This script will have you feline good!

Dick Whittington is a panto that lives or dies on its villain, and King Rat, the self-styled 'master of muck, duke of dirt and sire of the sewers', earns his boos. Our version gives him two hapless hench-rats, Frank and Sammy, whose determination to form a jazz band sends him steadily round the u-bend. Sarah the Cook runs her kitchen on food puns and sausage-related audience participation, and the second-act voyage to Morocco hands the Ensemble a proper set piece, complete with a custard pie scene that depends on a specific sign and some very precise pronunciation.

Synopsis

Dick has travelled to London to seek his fortune, but on arrival things are not quite as he imagined. The city is overrun with rats and Alderman Fitzwarren is at his wits' end trying to banish them.

Sensing an opportunity to prove himself, and to win the heart of Alice Fitzwarren, Dick vows to rid London of its vermin problem. But King Rat frames him in a cunning bid to keep control of the streets, and with Sarah the Cook, the lazy but lovable Idle Jack and Eileen the Cat beside him, Dick must work harder than ever to clear his name, restore order and claim his destiny.

Straight from the Script

King Rat, on the subject of public services:

King Rat: 'How are we supposed to spread disease and pestilence when public services are going round cleaning everything up? I hate the council!'

Casting Dick Whittington: Who this script suits

At 11 principal characters and two supporting roles, Dick Whittington sits in our medium cast scripts, and it carries a generous Ensemble on top: townsfolk, sailors, rats and pest controllers all earn their stage time across two acts and several locations. The voyage to Morocco gives the show real scale and the second act a change of pace, and the cast can flex without losing any momentum. If you have a comic performer who can properly relish being booed, the King Rat scenes are among the most enjoyable in the catalogue to play. Queen Rat works just as well if that suits your company better. It also sits comfortably among the traditional pantomime scripts, so the title does its own advertising.

Frank and Sammy are more than a pair of stooges. They have a number of their own in Act Two and they front the song sheet with the audience at the end, so cast two performers who can hold a room without King Rat standing next to them. Fairy Bow-Bells opens the show alone and in rhyming couplets before a word of the story has been spoken, which suits somebody who can land verse rather than simply recite it. Captain Watt runs a mop drill aboard ship that only works at speed, since the whole joke is that the company mishears him, and it repays rehearsal more than it repays props.

Be honest with your scenic team about this one. Five full sets do the work, London Town, Sarah's restaurant, the harbour, the ship and the Sultan's Palace, which is at the top end of what any of our scripts asks for, and six front-cloth scenes carry the changes between them. The Morocco landing is one of those front-cloth scenes, so the custard pie sequence needs a sign and a pie rather than a beach. Do give Sarah somebody in the wings with a towel, because she takes that pie in the face and is back on in the next scene.

Dick Whittington puts a great deal of its comedy into one pair of hands, which is a strength when you have the performer for it and a risk when you do not. Our Robin Hood is the opposite arrangement, spreading the laughs across 15 principal characters and four supporting roles, and it is the one to look at if your company has grown faster than your list of leading players.

Dick Whittington Reviews

‘Dick Whittington is a classic tale packed with slapstick comedy, audience participation, & larger-than-life characters: just what you want from a pantomime!’
Association of Community Theatre

‘A wonderful traditional pantomime experience; slick, creative, and well-executed staging.’
NODA

‘This script keeps the traditional panto feel but with modernised takes on music, lines and jokes. Meow-velous entertainment for all ages!’
Glossop Chronicle

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