The Anvil runs Beauty and the Beast for 39 performances, 10 December to 3 January. Tickets from £19.50, and the group discount deadline is 18 September 2026.

Basingstoke’s pantomime this year is Beauty and the Beast, at The Anvil, running Thursday 10 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027. There are 39 performances, and every one of them is listed as on sale in the theatre’s own ticketing system as at 4 September 2026.

Two things are worth knowing before you book. The cheapest seat in the house is £19.50 and the dearest is £44, and which of those you pay depends far more on the date you pick than on where you sit. And there is a real deadline coming: groups booking by 18 September 2026 get an extra £1 a ticket off.

The basics

  • Show: Beauty and the Beast, presented by Martin Dodd for UK Productions and Anvil Arts
  • Venue: The Anvil, Churchill Way, Basingstoke RG21 7QR
  • Runs: Thu 10 December 2026 to Sun 3 January 2027, 39 performances
  • Tickets: £19.50, £25, £31.50, £38, £40. Premium seats £36, £42, £44
  • Box office: 01256 844244
  • Suitable for: all the family, per the theatre’s own guidance

The cast is led by Ellie Dadd as Belle, best known as Amy Mitchell in EastEnders, Chris Pizzey as Louis La Plonk, who the theatre bills as “Basingstoke’s favourite”, and Sarah Jane Buckley as Fairy Bon Bon, returning from Hollyoaks. The script is by Jon Monie.

The dates are colour coded, and the colour is the price

The Anvil bands each performance by colour, and 24 of the 39 fall in the most expensive band. If you want to pay less, the choice is narrow and it is almost all in the first week.

39 performances, and 24 of them are peak priced Beauty and the Beast, The Anvil, 10 Dec 2026 to 3 Jan 2027. Banding from the venue's own schedule RED, peak 24 performances · 12, 13, 19 to 31 Dec BLUE 8 · 10, 11, 15, 16, 17 Dec, mostly mornings GRN 3 · Thu 10 Dec 6pm, Sun 13 Dec 5pm, Sat 2 Jan 6pm BLK 2 · Sat 2 Jan 2pm, Sun 3 Jan 2pm ORANGE, the cheapest band, 1 only: Fri 11 December, 6pm PURPLE, the relaxed performance, 1 only: Mon 21 December, 2pm, £16 flat Source: anvilarts.org.uk performance schedule and The Anvil's ticketing system, checked 4 September 2026. Basingstoke Online
Everything from 19 to 31 December is peak. The value dates are in the opening week and the first weekend of January

The theatre publishes a colour key for the bands: Orange is super-value, Green is value, Black is popular and Red is peak. Note that the key does not mention Blue or Purple, even though the schedule uses both. Blue turns up eight times and is the band used for weekday morning and early evening shows in the first week; the youth group price list prices Blue at £18.50, the lowest figure the theatre quotes for anything. Purple is used once, for the relaxed performance.

The practical shortcut: if you can go before 19 December or after 1 January, you will pay less. Friday 11 December at 6pm is the single Orange performance and the cheapest date of the run.

Discounts, and the deadline that is two weeks away

  • Friends of Anvil Arts, under 16s and full-time students: £3 off, but not at Red performances, which rules out most of the Christmas fortnight.
  • Groups of 10 or more: £2 off. Groups of 50 or more: £3 off. An extra £1 a ticket if the booking is paid for by 18 September 2026. Not available at Blue or Green performances.
  • Youth groups including Brownies and Cubs: £26.50 at Red, £25.50 at Black, £19.50 at Green and £18.50 at Blue 6pm performances, with one free leader per 10 children and a minimum booking of 10.
  • Schools: £15.50 a pupil with one free teacher per 10 pupils, five for under-fives. No other discount applies alongside it, and all other tickets on a schools booking are £28.50.
  • Family tickets (2 adults and 2 children, or 1 adult and 3 children): £114, £140 or £148 depending on the band, or £132, £156 and £164 for premium seats. Not available 21 December to 1 January.
  • Infant in arms: children under 18 months who will sit on a lap need a £4 ticket, bookable only by phone on 01256 844244.

The 18 September group deadline is the one to act on. It is a fortnight from now, and it is the only saving on this list with an expiry date.

Access performances

There are two, and the theatre’s ticket panel only advertises one of them.

  • Signed: Tuesday 15 December, 6pm. Booking by phone only.
  • Relaxed and signed: Monday 21 December, 2pm, at a flat £16. Booking by phone only.

The listing on the ticket panel names only the 15 December signed performance, but the performance schedule itself marks the 21 December matinee as both signed and relaxed, and the theatre’s own ticketing data confirms both flags on that date. If you need a signed performance and the 15th does not work, the 21st is worth asking about.

There is no captioned and no audio described performance in the run. Every one of the 39 performances is flagged as neither in the theatre’s ticketing system.

Four schools performances

Four of the morning shows are schools performances rather than public ones: Thursday 10, Friday 11, Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 December, all at 10.30am. The 10.30am show on Tuesday 15 December is not a schools performance, so it is the one weekday morning slot in that week open to general booking at the lower Blue price.

Booking, and a note on availability

Tickets have been on sale since 2 December 2025, more than a year ahead of the run, so the best dates have had a long time to go. All 39 performances were listed as on sale, and none cancelled, when we checked the theatre’s ticketing system on 4 September 2026. Once a performance does sell out, The Anvil runs a waiting list: you email your name, address and contact number to box.office@anvilarts.org.uk.

Book at anvilarts.org.uk or on 01256 844244.

The rest of Anvil Arts’ Christmas

The panto is not the only festive show, and several of the others are at The Haymarket rather than The Anvil:

  • The Nutcracker with a full live orchestra, The Anvil, Sat 21 November
  • Step Into Christmas, The Anvil, Tue 1 December
  • Dear Santa Live, The Haymarket, Wed 2 to Sun 6 December
  • A Winter Union, The Haymarket, Tue 8 December
  • The Snow Queen, The Haymarket, Wed 9 December
  • A Christmas Carol, The Haymarket, Fri 11 and Sat 12 December
  • Buddy Holly and The Cricketers: Holly at Christmas, The Haymarket, Wed 16 December
  • Philharmonia Brass, The Haymarket, Thu 17 December
  • Cara Dillon: Upon A Winter’s Night, The Haymarket, Sat 19 December
  • ABBA-Merry Christmas, The Haymarket, Sun 20 December
  • The Albion Christmas Band, The Haymarket, Mon 21 December

Getting there and parking

The Anvil is on Churchill Way, next to Basingstoke station and a couple of minutes’ walk from the bus station. For an evening show the station is the easiest option by some distance.

If you drive, the closest car parks are the Festival Place multistorey and Central Car Park. Evening tariffs and opening hours are on our Basingstoke parking page, and if you are driving in from the villages, the roadworks and travel page tracks the closures running through December.

One December date to plan around: the town centre streets close all day on Friday 20 November for the Christmas lights switch-on, where panto cast members have appeared by the tree in Market Place in each of the last two years.

All prices, dates and access details on this page were checked against Anvil Arts’ own website and ticketing system on 4 September 2026.