Record breaking pantomime as Aladdin is enjoyed over the festive period!

A record number of people visited the Marina Theatre’s annual pantomime – the most successful production at the venue to date.

Aladdin starred former politician Ann Widdecombe, who has since gone into the Celebrity Big Brother house, and A1 boyband star Mark Read.

The theatre once again teamed up with award-winning producers Paul Holman Associates for the shows - which ran from December 13 until January 1.

More than 12,600 people came to see the production - which was also the highest grossing pantomime produced by the Marina Theatre and Paul Holman Associates.

The performances, which were sponsored by Roger Harrod’s Karpet and Furniture Kingdom, also starred popular comic Terry Gleed, appearing in his third consecutive pantomime in Lowestoft, and Fenton Gray as Widow Twankey – in his second year at the venue.

The show received rave reviews in the press and on social media and there was even a marriage proposal live on stage! Thankfully, she said yes!

Lee Henderson, chief executive of the Marina Theatre, said: “To hear that so many people enjoyed our fantastic family pantomime makes it all worthwhile for us at the Marina Theatre.

“I would like to thank everyone who came to see Aladdin in what turned out to be a record year for us at the Marina. In this ever changing world, your support helps us to remain vital community resource for our town and allows us to continue attracting top quality performers to the Marina.

“Our fabulous and talented cast were a pleasure to work with and we hope you can join us for Peter Pan – which will be showcased at the end of this year.

“We also look forward to presenting our diverse programme of events to you for the rest of the year – with something for everyone on offer.”

Tickets are already available for Peter Pan – with seats starting at just £8.

The winners of our #wisheewindow have also been announced. Thank you to everyone who entered our competition – we received so many entries!

Young Ivy (Facebook entry) was named as our songsheet star for her hilarious on stage antics with Terry Gleed during the final segment of the show. And Hawke (Twitter entry) won our selfie competition – his story was extremely heart-warming too! Both win a family ticket to see next year’s panto!

The answers to our childhood photo competition have also been revealed. Top left corner – Mia Richards, top centre Mark Read, top right, Darren Clewlow-Smith, bottom left Terry Gleed, bottom centre Aaron Spendelow, bottom right Fenton Gray.