INTERVIEW : Gary: Tank Commander and the cast of Sleeping Beauty at HMT
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Gary: Tank Commander will be entertaining the troops at Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre this festive season as he joins the cast of this year’s pantomime Sleeping Beauty, Aberdeen PerformingArts.
Gary joins panto Dame extraordinaire Alan McHugh as Nurse Nannie Macduff, comic actor and River City Star Paul J Corrigan as Slimeball and Aberdeen’s own Danielle Jam who returns this year as The Good Fairy.
We caught up with Gary and the cast at the theatre on Tuesday.
"It feels actually brilliant to be this far north as I love the north pole so I always think that the closer I am to the polar bears the better.
"The big draw for coming to Aberdeen was to be with this incredible group of people including my mummy whose here with me on this stage and she's being doing panto for over 75 years which is like forever and she says to me Gary, son I want you to come to Aberdeen to spend Christmas with me, and I said yeah, I am well up for that.
"This year is going to be low-key on stage for Gary, I am going to treat this like the Godfather.
"You'll barley even notice me just drifting past in the scenes, stealing the scenes.
"Whatever scenes I'm in, I'll be stealing it and just being naturally amazing."
Dame extraordinare, Alan McHugh said: "It's always an honour to take to the stage at HMT and with such a great cast.
"That includes Julie (Coombe) who also did my very first panto with me on stage at Hilton when HMT was closed back in 2004 and I have worked with her many times.
"This is my 19th year and half way through last year's run I was mortified when they presented me with an award to celebrate my 1000th appearance, so I must be doing something right.
"But its a pleasure to be back and this year's show is going to be fun packed with something for everyone."
Julie Coombe plays the villain of the piece Carabosse: "My last panto here was Alan's first and I was the wicked queen then, and I am so excited to play this role.
"With Gary and the Dame, its going to be a riot."
Joining her is Michael Karl Lewis as the Prince: "I was Peter Pan last year and its great to be back in such an amazing production this year."
Also return to the stage at HMT are Paul J Corrigan as Slimeball and Danielle Jam as the Spirit of the Panto."
Paul said: "I've played Slimeball before and he's the baddies bad son which lets me do lots of fun things.
Danielle: "Playing Tinkerbell last year was great fun and this year, my third at HMT I get to be a bit more glam, with a lot more sparkles.
"The two McHugh's on stage are going to compliment each other but its also going to be quite the upstaging contest and organised chaos and more anarchic as the run goes on."
Aberdeen Performing Arts Director of Programming and Creative Projects, Ben Torrie said: “We are pure buzzing to say Hiya to Gary and give him a huge HMT welcome this festive season alongside our beloved Dame, Alan McHugh, our favourite cheeky chappie Paul J Corrigan and the fabulous Danielle Jam.
There is nowhere more magical than His Majesty’s Theatre in panto season and we can’t wait to see what this amazing cast have in store!”
Sleeping Beauty is staged by Crossroads Pantomimes, the world’s biggest pantomime producer, led by Michael Harrison and the creative team behind last year’s production of The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan.
Tickets for Sleeping Beauty are on sale now, available from www.aberdeenperformingarts.com, phone (01224) 641122 or visit the box office at His Majesty’s Theatre, the Music Hall or the Lemon Tree.
