The Hideout creates a new holiday tradition in Chicago

For most Americans, “pantomime” means acting with silent gestures. Not so in other countries—and for the past four years, the Hideout has developed a homegrown version of this slightly naughty variety of theater. With help from some British émigrés, the music and performance venue lets Chicago families in on what British kids have known for decades: Pantomimes (often called pantos) are an outrageously fun time.

For the uninitiated: A panto is a bawdy family play in which men play women, women play men, and someone (usually) plays an animal. The audience participates by yelling “Boo!” or “Hiss!” to villains, and there are plenty of double entendres and saucy jokes that usually fly over kids’ heads.

It’s a holiday tradition in Great Britain, where musicians Jon Langford and Sally Timms (of local bands the Mekons and the Wee Hairy Beasties) came of age. After Timms saw Ian McKellen (best known as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings) cross genders in a London panto six years ago, she had the idea to bring the show to Chicago. Langford readily agreed, saying, “We grew up with this stuff; it’s in our bones.”

Hideout co-owner Tim Tuten didn’t have to be persuaded to host the project, which first bloomed in 2007. “It’s some sort of old English tradition, which would seem to give the Hideout a touch of class, right?” he asks.

The pantos have surely given the Hideout a touch of, well, something. The annual shows have become an entirely Chicago kind of phenomenon. Timms says they’ve turned down offers to bring the show to other venues. “It was never something intended to go to Broadway,” she says. “It’s a community endeavor, something to do on a cold winter’s night.”

Tuten sees the show in a similar light: “To me, the pantos we’ve done are the highlights of the Hideout’s history.” Certainly this is reflected each year, with characters not only changing according to whomever might be working at the bar that year but also on Langford’s and Timms’s whimsical natures, which—as regulars know—is a part of the bar’s charm. Past panto plots focused on Vikings vs. Daleks, Darwin discovering the origins of Christmas and Santa’s early life as a Zeppelin pirate.

And though the musical dallies with blue humor, it’s first and foremost a family experience. “All panto is family-friendly,” says Timms. “The adult version [which runs late-night at the Hideout] is the deviation from the norm.”

The Hideout Players Present…Cleopatra: Queen of Denial runs December 16–18 at the Hideout. See Calendar.