YEARS ago the seasonal pantomime had tried and trusted formulas: song and dance, gags, slapstick, glamour, a hero, a heroine, a clown of sorts, a thigh-slapping Principal Boy (always a female) and a bumbling Dame (always a man).
Alhambra audiences have become accustomed to expect more for their money now that the technology is available to add a bit of real-life wizardry.
In recent years some of the highlights of West Yorkshire's biggest pantomime have been the spectacular visual effects, created for producers Qdos Entertainment by The Twins FX, and this year is no exception.
Billed as ‘magical consultants’ to the show, real-life twins Gary and Paul Hardy-Brown last year created a mechanism which sent Billy Pearce into a spin – literally, on a spectacular flying carpet, which rotated 360 degrees above the audience before flying at speed.
In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which opens today, starring Billy Peace, in his 16th Alhambra pantomime as Muddles, and X Factor winner Joe McElderry as The Spirit of the Mirror, Muddles makes a rapid journey by car.
Being pantomime, of course, it’s a flying car, which travels over the heads of the audience. The Wicked Queen’s journey (one clue is her spikey hairdo, another is her name, Sadista) is made in far more sinister fashion, flying on a giant Pterodactyl.
The show’s executive producer Michael Harrison knows that this year's show has a lot to live up to: “Each year we have to work hard to beat the spectacle of the year before, so the effects become bigger and bolder.
"As well as the flying car and pterodactyl, we have also been training Billy for a very special trick which he will use to mark Snow White’s birthday.
“In creating the show it’s important that the effects add to the story as well as looking impressive, so we work hard to ensure that each illusion helps to move the plot forward.”
Billy Pearce's Alhambra pantomime appearances started out in 1993/94 in Cinderella when Paul Nicholas, Bobby Bennett and Dave Lee were also in the cast.
And every year the tricks he's asked to undertake are a little more nerve-wracking - at least until he's got used to them.
He said: "It’s incredibly exciting to be part of such awe-inspiring moments in the production.
"During the rehearsals we spend a lot of time practicing the technical aspects of
the illusions so that by the first performance it looks as slick and magical as The Twins had planned it to be.
"It takes a little practice, a little skill and right-lot of Yorkshire courage.”
The work of more than 30 technical and production staff and 20 performers, alongside children supplied by the local Sara Packham Theatre School, has been put into the production which opens this afternoon.
In the original Brothers Grimm story, the Wicked Witch is invited to Snow White's wedding where she is forced to wear red hot iron shoes and dance until she drops dead. The Alhambra show has a very different finale.
Michael Harrison said: “Joe McElderry will be offering the Wicked Queen some wise words of advice from aboard a giant flying mirror.”
What they are we can't say because we've been sworn to secrecy by the Wicked Queen, who has got a nifty way with an apple for anyone she doesn't like.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is on from today until January 25. For tickets ring 01274 432000.
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