Southend panto 2026 is Snow White at the Cliffs Pavilion, 38 shows from 12 December to 3 January, from £26.50, with Shane Richie as Muddles and Faye Tozer.

Cliffs Pavilion panto 2026: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The Southend panto for 2026 is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Cliffs Pavilion, with 38 performances from 2pm on Saturday 12 December 2026 to 5pm on Sunday 3 January 2027. Shane Richie plays Muddles and the Steps singer Faye Tozer is the Wicked Queen. The cheapest seats are £26.50, on the 11am New Year’s Eve show, and most performances start at £29.50 to £34 (Southend Theatres, Snow White, checked 15 September 2026).

There are three separate festive shows across the two Southend Theatres venues, aimed at three different audiences, and they run at different times of the season. This page sets out all of them with dates and prices as published by the box office.

The three festive shows

Show Venue Dates From
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Cliffs Pavilion Sat 12 Dec 2026 to Sun 3 Jan 2027 £26.50
The Nutcracker: Magic and Mischief Palace Theatre Wed 16 to Sun 27 Dec 2026 £21.50
The Adult Panto: Puss and Dick Palace Theatre Fri 8 and Sat 9 Jan 2027 £28.00

All three are listed on the Southend Theatres what’s on pages, which are the box office’s own listings rather than a resale site.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cliffs Pavilion

The main family pantomime runs for just over three weeks. The box office’s booking data gives the first performance as 2pm on Saturday 12 December and the last as 5pm on Sunday 3 January 2027, with the run continuing over Christmas and New Year.

Performance times and lowest prices

There are two shows on every performance day. The lowest price listed by the box office for each date, as of 15 September 2026:

Dates Times From
Sat 12 Dec 2pm, 7pm £29.50
Sun 13 Dec 1pm, 5pm £29.50
Tue 15 to Thu 17 Dec 2pm, 7pm £29.50 (£31.50 on Thu 17 Dec at 7pm)
Sat 19 and Sun 20 Dec Sat 2pm, 7pm; Sun 1pm, 5pm £34.00
Mon 21 to Wed 23 Dec 2pm, 7pm £31.50
Thu 24 Dec, Christmas Eve 1pm, 5pm £34.00
Sat 26 to Mon 28 Dec 1pm, 5pm £31.50
Tue 29 and Wed 30 Dec 2pm, 7pm £31.50
Thu 31 Dec, New Year’s Eve 11am, 3pm £26.50 at 11am, £29.50 at 3pm
Sat 2 Jan 2pm, 7pm £31.50
Sun 3 Jan 1pm, 5pm £31.50

There is no performance on Monday 14 December, Friday 18 December, Christmas Day, Friday 1 January or any Friday of the run.

Discounts

  • Concessions: £2 off per ticket for under 16s, over 60s, students and the unemployed, on all Standard performances plus the Popular 7pm show on Saturday 2 January and 5pm show on Sunday 3 January. ID may be required.
  • Family of four ticket, needing at least two under 16s, on the same performances.
  • Groups of 10, 20 and 40 or more get set rates on Standard performances only, booked on 0343 310 077.
  • Schools: £20 per student with a free teacher for every ten students, on the 2pm shows of Tuesday 15, Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 December.
  • Priority Live members get £2 off any seat on the opening weekend.

Shane Richie, a television, musical theatre and pantomime regular, plays Muddles, and Faye Tozer of Steps plays the Wicked Queen. The production is billed as a full-scale panto with a magic mirror, the seven dwarfs, song and dance numbers and audience participation (Visit Southend).

Prices start at £26.50 and rise with seat position and performance. No BSL, captioned, relaxed or audio described performances were marked on the show page as of 15 September 2026. Southend Theatres does run accessible performances as a matter of policy, and access tickets, including wheelchair spaces and companion seats, are booked through the box office rather than online.

Venue: Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS0 7RA, box office 03433 1000 30.

The Nutcracker: Magic and Mischief, Palace Theatre

The Palace Theatre’s family Christmas show is a Nutcracker, produced by Wind Song Theatre with the Palace Theatre, running Wednesday 16 to Sunday 27 December 2026 from £21.50. The first performance is at 1pm on 16 December and the last at 6.30pm on 27 December.

It sits in the family category rather than pantomime, so expect a Christmas theatre show rather than a dame and a chorus of boos. It is also the cheaper option if you are booking for several children.

Venue: Palace Theatre, 430 London Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS0 9LA.

The Adult Panto: Puss and Dick, Palace Theatre

The over-18s panto lands after Christmas, on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 January 2027, from £28.00, at the Palace Theatre. Two nights only, with the second running late.

Frequently asked questions about the Cliffs Pavilion panto

What is the Cliffs Pavilion panto for 2026?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with Shane Richie as Muddles and Faye Tozer as the Wicked Queen.

When is the Southend panto 2026?

From Saturday 12 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027 at the Cliffs Pavilion, with 38 performances. The first is at 2pm on 12 December and the last at 5pm on 3 January.

How much are Cliffs Pavilion panto tickets?

From £26.50 for the 11am New Year’s Eve show. Other performances start at £29.50 to £34.00, with £2 off for under 16s, over 60s, students and the unemployed on Standard performances.

Is there a panto on Christmas Day?

No. The last shows before Christmas are at 1pm and 5pm on Christmas Eve, and the run picks up again at 1pm on Boxing Day.

Getting there and parking

Cliffs Pavilion has its own pay and display car park on Station Road, with two machines, cash or card, and no phone payment (Southend Theatres, your visit). A bus stop sits directly outside the main entrance, and c2c’s Westcliff station is a ten minute walk.

The Palace Theatre has no car park of its own. The theatre points people at the London Road/Hamlet Court Road and Ceylon Road car parks, both about ten minutes’ walk, and notes that all of them are council-run rather than theatre-run. A bus stop is immediately outside, and Westcliff station is a twenty minute walk.

Two council parking rules make a real difference to a December theatre trip:

  • Zone 1A prices drop to Zone 1B prices from November to January. The Cliffs Pavilion car park is Zone 1A, so four hours falls from £11.30 to £8.60 across the whole panto run.
  • Zone 1 charging runs to 9pm, three hours later than the rest of the city, but from 6pm it is a flat £5.00 for up to three hours in Zone 1A and 1B. An evening performance is therefore cheaper to park for than a matinee.

The Palace Theatre’s suggested car parks, Hamlet Court Road and Ceylon Road, are Zone 2B, where charging stops at 6pm, so an evening show there costs nothing to park for (Southend-on-Sea City Council, car park zones). Full tariffs are on our parking in Southend page, and Southend roadworks and travel tracks closures that could affect the drive in.

What else is on over Christmas

The Cliffs Pavilion also runs a long list of festive lunches and parties through December, from £40 for a festive lunch and £55 to £65 for an evening party, and a New Year’s Eve event with the Rat Pack show from £75. The Palace Theatre screens Elf, Home Alone and White Christmas on 6 December at £11.50 a ticket, and stages A Christmas Carol by Dickens Theatre Company on 23 and 24 November from £29 (Southend Theatres what’s on).

For the rest of the season, see our Southend Christmas lights switch-on page, whose 2025 switch-on was performed alongside cast members from the Southend Theatres Christmas shows, and our Southend fireworks and bonfire night page.

What we will update, and when

  • Accessible performances for Snow White (BSL, captioned, relaxed, audio described), none marked yet on 15 September.
  • Any further casting announcements. Only the two headline names have been published so far.

Sources