Robin Hood

An outlaw with no owner

Robin Hood arrives in theatres each winter as a title rather than an act. No single script, cast or producer holds it. The Sheriff of Nottingham, Maid Marian, Little John, Will Scarlett and Friar Tuck are common property, and each theatre's writing team rebuilds the story around whatever its building, its budget and its local audience will carry. That makes the subject hard to pin down and easy to book: in any given December, Sherwood is being raided simultaneously by a large commercial house with a live band and pyrotechnics and by a small producing theatre working from an original script with songs written for the room.

What the title has instead of an author is institutional pedigree. The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin has run an annual Christmas pantomime since 1873 and is now past 150 years of it; Stratford East in east London counts more than 130 years of festive productions made for the streets around it. When theatres like those pick Robin Hood, they are slotting it into a house tradition that predates every current version of the script by a century or more.

The story also comes pre-loaded with things pantomime needs. There is a landscape in Sherwood Forest, a politics in taking from the rich, a romance in Maid Marian, and a villain whose job title alone draws a boo. The looseness of the source means a writer can move the whole thing — to east London, or to a made-up forest in the London Borough of Havering — without breaking it.

The commercial version: Birmingham, Wimbledon, Southampton

The largest-scale Robin Hood is the one made by Crossroads Pantomimes, the company led by Michael Harrison. Its Birmingham Hippodrome production ran from 20 December 2025 to 1 February 2026, co-written by Harry Michaels and Matt Slack with Slack himself playing Robin, Andrew Ryan as the dame Henrietta, and a guest line-up of Faye Tozer, Gok Wan, Matt Cardle and Christopher Biggins. Reviewing it for British Theatre Guide, Andrew Cowie catalogued a ten-strong dance ensemble with repeated costume changes, a live six-piece band, pyrotechnics, confetti cannons, puppets and flying scenery, and noted that two staples — the slosh scene and the transformation scene — had been cut. His verdict was mixed: spectacle turned up past the point where the plot carried any stakes, rescued by Slack's comic timing.

The same company fielded the title in London at the same time. At New Wimbledon Theatre, through to 4 January 2026, Ashley Banjo led as Robin with Jordan Banjo and Perri Kiely as the chief Merry Men, the magician Pete Firman as Will Scarlet and Amelia Walker as the Spirit of Sherwood. Reviewed on 9 December 2025 by Neill Kovacic-Clarke for Pink Prince Theatre at four stars, it was read as a successful graft of street dance onto panto structure, with Firman's audience work singled out — and with real complaints: murky sound that swallowed gags and lyrics, lighting that hid the detail of the choreography, and an ensemble left with too little to do.

That package moves down the south coast for the coming season. Robin Hood plays Mayflower Theatre in Southampton from Saturday 12 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, again with Ashley Banjo and Diversity as Robin and his Merry Men, and with Max Fulham joining as Will Scarlett after appearing in the venue's 2025 Peter Pan alongside Alexandra Burke and Dr Ranj. The scenery and costumes are billed as coming from the London Palladium, which is how Crossroads recycles its biggest-budget build through regional runs.

The writers'-room version: Dublin, Hornchurch, Stratford

Dublin's Gaiety announced Robin Hood as its 2026 panto on 18 September 2026, running 22 November 2026 to 3 January 2027 under director Daryn Crosbie, with tickets from €23. David James Whelan plays Robin Hood and Tara Flanagan Maid Marian, opposite David Crowley as the Sheriff of Snottingham — the house's own joke on the geography. The rest of the company is Linzi Cowap as Witch Grotbags, Ben Morris as Friar Tuck, Shane Quigley Murphy as Little John, Stephen O'Leary as Much the Miller's Son, Adam Doherty as Will Scarlett, and Michael Joseph making his Gaiety panto debut as the dame, Patsy.

Stratford East is staging Robin Hood and the Merry Mandem from 21 November 2026 to 2 January 2027, written by Yolanda Mercy and directed by the theatre's associate artistic director Jade Lewis, with music and lyrics by Robert Hyman, set and costumes by Stewart J Charlesworth, choreography by Jade Hackett and musical direction by Rachel Wells. Ashley Joseph plays Robin, Helen K Wint plays Marian, Daniel Jacob plays Muva, and Toyin Ayedun-Alase, Eshan Gopal, Nickcolia King-N'da and Kandaka Moore complete the company as the Mayor, Lil John Jr, Will Scarlet and FT. The forest is replaced by east London streets, stations, shops and estates, and Lewis has framed the job in plain terms: "I believe that theatre is for everyone and families have a right to access theatre spaces, which makes directing a Panto such an honour and a privilege."

Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, which announced its version in September 2026, opens earliest of the three: 18 November 2026 to 2 January 2027, co-written by Kate Lovell and James Watson, directed by Kash Arshad, with original music and lyrics by Andrew Linham, choreography by Tara Young and set design by Elizabeth Wright. Folarin Akinmade takes the title role and Lauren Chinery plays Cyril the Squirrel, in a version relocated to what the theatre calls the Forest of Havering.

Where the title stands now

The clearest measure of how well the title travels is the Pantomime Awards 2026, run by the UK Pantomime Association in partnership with Trafalgar Entertainment and ATG Entertainment, with the ceremony set for 19 April at the Wycombe Swan in High Wycombe. Four separate Robin Hood productions picked up nominations: Lauren Hampton for Best Secondary Lead at New Wimbledon; the ten-strong Birmingham Hippodrome ensemble of Sophie Baker, Gustave Die, Nicholas Leon Jones, Megan Little, Flyn Mullins, Jarryd Nurden, Callum Quinnen, Holly Skiggs, Ellie-May Wilson and Taela Yeomans-Brown for Best Ensemble; Stewart J Charlesworth for Best Costumes on Robin Hood and his Merry Men at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham; and Will Jennings for Best Supporting Artist at The Capitol in Horsham, a council-run venue.

That spread — a national producer, a city-centre receiving house, a producing theatre and a local-authority venue — is the point. Charlesworth's progress is a neat illustration of it: costume nomination for Cheltenham's Robin Hood last season, designing Stratford East's Robin Hood this one.

Breadth is where the title sits in late 2026 as well. More than seventy performance dates are currently on sale across the listing, which is a function of several unconnected runs overlapping rather than one tour moving through venues. Beyond the four main productions, the title also turns up this season at smaller houses including the Lichfield Garrick.

In the room

The format is stable across every version. Two acts with an interval, no support act, running somewhere between two hours and two and a half: the New Wimbledon production ran roughly two hours twenty including the break. The shape is a chase plot interrupted by set-piece comedy, pop songs rewritten for the plot, a dame in escalating costumes, direct address and booing at the Sheriff, and a sing-along before the finale. Commercial productions add the budget items — flying trucks, pyrotechnics, confetti cannons, puppets, a live band in the pit. Producing-house versions substitute original songs and a cast that can play them.

Reviews of recent runs land on the same split. The comedy engine and the audience work get the credit — Slack in Birmingham, Firman in Wimbledon — while the spectacle gets the complaints when it crowds out the story, as Cowie argued at the Hippodrome, or when the technical side cannot keep up, as with Wimbledon's sound. The participation elements are what fans consistently respond to, which is why writers keep the Sheriff's entrances and the sing-along even when they cut traditional business like the slosh scene.

Access performances have become part of the standard run rather than an add-on. Nottingham Playhouse's Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, written and directed by Kenneth Alan Taylor and running 30 November 2018 to 19 January 2019 with Tim Frater as Robin and John Elkington as Nurse Nelly Noggins, scheduled British Sign Language-interpreted, captioned, audio-described, relaxed and dementia-friendly performances across its seven weeks — a pattern most of the 2026/27 productions now follow.

The variants

The title rarely appears unmodified, and the suffix tells a booker what sort of show it is. Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood folds in a second panto plot, giving the Sheriff a motive — disposing of his niece and nephew to take their inheritance — and the production two sets of comic children. Robin Hood and his Merry Men, as at Cheltenham, signals a straighter telling built around the band. Robin Hood and the Merry Mandem, at Stratford East, signals a rewrite in the voice of the neighbourhood the theatre sits in. All three are the same story about redistribution, told at whatever scale the house can afford.