Funny Girls
Blackpool's best-known drag cabaret, staging big themed revues in a restored 1939 art deco cinema two minutes from Blackpool North.
Panto dames and straight drag in Blackpool
The 2026 Grand Theatre panto, forty years of Grand dames, Danny La Rue and how dames relate to drag.
The pantomime dame is a British tradition: a man, often straight, playing a big, comic, middle-aged woman, usually the hero's mother. It is the oldest form of drag most British people ever see, and Blackpool, which calls itself the home of variety, has been one of its great homes.
This year's panto
Jack and the Beanstalk at the Grand Theatre, Church Street, runs from 4 December 2026 to 3 January 2027.
- Ben Harlow, known for Legally Blonde and Mamma Mia!, returns as Dame Trott.
- Lisa George of Coronation Street plays the Spirit of the Beans, with Steve Royle as Silly Simon.
Forty years of Grand dames
The Grand has kept a dame in almost every pantomime since the 1980s. Some highlights:
| Year | Dame | Pantomime |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Roy Barraclough as Dame Trott | Emu in Pantoland |
| 1983 | Roy Barraclough as Widow Twankey | Aladdin |
| 1988 | Danny La Rue as Widow Twankey | Aladdin |
| 1991 | Russell Grant as Dame Sadie Spangle | Goldilocks |
| 2002 | Ken Morley as Widow Twankey | Aladdin |
| 2004 | Mike Grady as Dame Trott | Jack and the Beanstalk |
| 2016 | Philip Meeks as Widow Twankey | Aladdin |
| 2018 | Nick Wilton as Polly La Plonk | Beauty and the Beast |
| 2022 | Philip Meeks as Nursie | Sleeping Beauty |
| 2026 | Ben Harlow as Dame Trott | Jack and the Beanstalk |
Source: Blackpool Grand Theatre's own list of its panto dames, and its 2026 casting announcement.
Dames and drag
Dames and drag queens share roots in music hall, but they are different crafts:
- A dame is a comic character in a family show, and the joke is often that the audience can see the man underneath.
- A drag queen is usually going for glamour or high camp, for an adult audience, and is often part of LGBTQ+ culture.
Some performers have done both. Danny La Rue, who played the Grand's Widow Twankey in 1988, was Britain's most famous female impersonator, a regular Blackpool star who switched on the Illuminations in 1972. George Lacy, a leading dame for around half a century, played the Palace Theatre as "She's No Lady" and was still on the Grand's stage in 1981, aged 80.
Straight drag today
Pantomime is the main place you'll see straight men in drag in Blackpool today, alongside pub and club comedy acts. On the Rainbow Quarter's stages, drag is overwhelmingly LGBTQ+, but everyone is welcome in the audience.
Garlands
A camp, free-entry drag pub near Blackpool North where resident queens are on from mid-afternoon every single day.
More
Sources
Drag and performance: more pages
Drag performersQueens, kings, dames, trans showgirls, faux queens and alternative drag, and where to see them.Drag queensThe Funny Girls company, Garlands residents, Drag Race stars, the legends and where to see them.Trans drag queens and showgirlsTrans women in drag and cabaret: the showgirl tradition, what it means and Blackpool's welcoming stages.Drag kingsFrom Vesta Tilley to the UK's first drag king bar in 2015, and where to watch for kings now.Bio queens and faux queensWomen who perform as drag queens: the names, why many dislike "faux", Drag Race UK's first and more.Alternative drag and drag monstersHorror, art and gender-defying drag: what it is, Mr Blackpool, Halloween shows and where to look.Every identityThe full list, the long acronyms and UK law.