The best Christmas pantomimes in London

Oh yes it is! London panto season is back for 2025, and here’s Time Out’s complete rundown of every major pantomime in the city.

London's best pantomimes at a glance:

• Best ‘classic’ panto: Cinderella, Hackney Empire
• Hippest panto: Jack and the Beanstalk, Lyric Hammersmith
• Best celebrity panto: Sleeping Beauty, London Palladium
• Christmas panto you can see on Christmas Day: Cinderella and the Matzo Ball, JW3 
• Best adults only panto: see our adult panto list

For some Londoners the only time of year they'll visit a theatre, panto season is a bizarre, joyful, quintessentially British time to come together and watch some light-hearted spoof fairytales that revolve around men dressing up as women and/or farm animals.

Within that, though, there’s huge variation, from the megascale London Palladium show with its filthy figurehead Julian Clary, to Clive Rowe’s brilliant panto purism at the Hackney Empire and JW3’s amusing Jewish spin that runs on Christmas Day itself.

I’m Andrzej Łukowski, Time Out’s theatre editor, and while this page is simply intended as a round-up of London pantomimes, then it’s an *informed* round up – I have seen approximately four billion pantos over the last 15 years or so, and know what they’re all like, plus we’ll update this page with star ratings when our reviews of this year’s crop start rolling in in late November.

London is a city that takes pantomime seriously, and even if the idea of seasonal frivolity fills you with dread, there’s a panto out there for you.

RECOMMENDED: The best London theatre shows to see in 2025.

The best Christmas theatre shows in London.