Cinderella time for Oldham - but not at the Coliseum
While the home of one of the North West's most famous pantomimes - the Coliseum - isn't likely to be open for business this Christmas, a former star of Coliseum panto is appearing as dame in another Oldham Christmas show.
Veteran actor Jeffrey Longmore will celebrate his 50th year of panto appearances, many of them in Oldham, as Dame with Coronation Street actresses Mollie Gallagher and Beth Nixon as the Wicked Stepsisters in Cinderella.
They will be joined on stage by local favourite Kate Salmon, Adam Parker Brown, Caitlin McNally and Ryan Hall.
The show (December 11-January 3) will be the inaugural pantomime at Oldham's new performance and function venue The Loom, which opened in the spring.
Cinderella is Jeff's seventh season with Anton Benson Productions in Oldham and his 50th panto season in total - his first being at King George’s Hall in Blackburn in 1976.
Mollie Gallagher joined the Corrie cast - as the long-lost niece of Roy Cropper - for seven years after leading drama school, and is currently in her stage debut as Clarice Starling in the stage adaptation of The Silence of the Lambs.
Beth Nixon joined the Corrie cast last year, as athletics coach Megan Walsh, who became embroiled in a dramatic and controversial major storyline.
Jeffrey Longmore joined Oldham Coliseum in 1978 to appear in four plays and ended up staying for four years, appearing in 27 consecutive shows.
During his time there he was a audience favourite, and highlights included being the first person to play Frank N Furter in the regional premiere of The Rocky Horror Show - a part he later played many more times on UK tours. At 27 he was the youngest actor in the country to play Dame in Cinderella, and went on to play Dame in Oldham for a further six years before writing his own pantos for theatres in Derby, Wythenshawe and Stoke-on-Trent, then appearing as Dame at Nottingham Playhouse for seven years.
Anton Benson Productions produces Christmas pantomimes for venues across the UK each Christmas, as well as Easter panto at 15 venues each spring. The company has produced pantos for Oldham audiences since 2019, initially at the Grange Arts Centre and since 2021 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The new venue, The Loom, in Parliament Square, is a modern, flexible entertainment and conference venue built as part of a £450 million town centre regeneration programme, replacing the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which closed in May 2026.
Anton Benson said, "We always get a wonderful, warm welcome from Oldham’s family audiences and absolutely love performing there. We have a brilliant cast and I’m especially delighted this year’s show also marks a special anniversary for the legendary Jeffrey Longmore. He's larger-than-life proof that there really ain’t nothing like a Dame!"
More info and tickets here
