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Audition Songs for a Pantomime Dame

panto dame audition songs for pantomime
Photo Credit: Carolina Ödman via cc
Audition Songs for a Pantomime Dame
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The Panto Dame is usually the hero’s mother and is traditionally performed by a middle aged male actor in drag. The Dame has to be exceptionally good at comedy and have excellent comic timing.

Think of Jack’s Mother in Jack in the Beanstalk or Widow Twankey from Aladdin. A panto dame should always be full of fun and be very likeable.

Some great famous panto dames include the late Danny la Rue, Norman Evans, John Inman and Les Dawson.

You need to be able to carry a tune, but vocal ability isn’t as important as comedy and schtick!
  • The Dame Song (click to view video)
    Behind You! Behind You!
    Behind You! Behind You! is half panto, half comedy and half-cocked! The story is sort of ‘Puss In Boots’ getting it rough, raw and from behind in this outrageous and camp entertainment.
    An hilarious show full of double entendre, outrageousness, guaranteed to offend everyone.
    This song is a filthy, risky choice but will certainly get you in the right frame of mind!
  • Would You Like to Swing a Star (click to view video)
    Bing Crosby
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    “Swinging on a Star” is an American pop standard sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 film Going My Way, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.
    During a meal one of Bing’s children began complaining about how he didn’t want to go to school the next day. The singer turned to his son and said to him, “If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule. Do you wanna do that?” and the song was born!
  • 9 to 5 (click to view video)
    9 to 5
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    “9 to 5″ is a song written and originally performed by Dolly Parton. It was written for the 1980 comedy film of the same name which starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Parton herself.
    This song is a real woman’s anthem which makes it a perfect tongue in cheek pantomime Dame audition song.
  • Dont Cha (click to view video)
    Pussycat Dolls
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    “Don’t Cha” was the debut single by American girl group The Pussycat Dolls.
    The song was released in 2005 as the lead single from the Dolls’ debut studio album PCD.
    “Don’t Cha” is about a girl who teases a man that she is more attractive than his girlfriend.
  • I’m a Woman (click to view video)
    Peggy Lee
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    The song “I’m a Woman” was written by duo Leiber and Stoller in 1962, and was recorded and released as a single later that year by Peggy Lee.
    The song is a great big celebration of being a woman! This would be a terrific audition song for a Dame.
  • Gorgeous (click to view video)
    The Apple Tree
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    The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets. Each act has its own storyline, but all three are tied together by a common theme – someone who believes that they want something, but once they get what they wanted they realize that it wasn’t what they wanted.
    ‘Gorgeous’ is sung in Act Three, Passionella – a comic reworking of Cinderella. Gorgeous is sung by Ella when the Fairy Godmother turns her into Passionella who she can be from the seven o’clock news until the end of the late late show!
  • There is Nothing Like a Dame (click to view video)
    South Pacific
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    “There Is Nothing Like a Dame” is one of the songs from the musical South Pacific. The song is written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
    It is widely popular in musical theatre, often sung by men’s choirs.
    In South Pacific it is sung by the sailors because they all long for women in their lives.
    The song was also used as the signature tune for ITV’s series The Dame Edna Treatment!
  • Girls Just Want to Have Fun (click to view video)
    Cyndi Lauper
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    “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is a 1979 song originally written by Robert Hazard and made famous by singer Cyndi Lauper.
    The song was originally written for a man, but Cyndi changed the lyrics slightly and made the song a feminist anthem with an award winning video.
  • Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (click to view video)
    Mary Poppins
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    “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins.
    The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
    According to Richard M. Sherman, co-writer of the song with his brother, Robert, the word was created by them in two weeks, mostly out of double-talk.
    The roots of the word have been defined as follows: super- “above”, cali- “beauty”, fragilistic- “delicate”, expiali- “to atone”, and docious- “educable”, with the sum of these parts signifying roughly “Atoning for educability through delicate beauty.”
  • The Lady is a Tramp (click to view video)
    Babes In Arms
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    “The Lady Is a Tramp” is a show tune from the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms.
    This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette – the first line of the verse is “I get too hungry for dinner at eight…”
    It has become a popular standard. It was recorded by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald in 1950s and Shirley Bassey in the 1960s, becoming a signature song for each of them.
  • Big Spender (click to view video)
    Sweet Charity
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    “Big Spender” is a song written for the musical Sweet Charity.
    It is sung, in the musical, by the dance hostess “girls”; it was choreographed by Bob Fosse for the Broadway musical and the film.
    It is “set to the beat of a striptease” as the girls “taunt” the customers.
    The song has become one of Shirley Bassey’s signature songs.
  • Life’s a Happy Song (click to view video)
    The Muppets
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    “Life’s a Happy Song” is an original song from the film The Muppets.
    The song is sung in the movie by Gary, Walter, and Mary, with a chorus of other Smalltown, USA residents.
    Written by Bret McKenzie, the song was the first he penned for the film. McKenzie said the song is, “successful as a musical number, but it’s also a parody of a musical number.
  • We’re in the Money (click to view video)
    42nd Street
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    “The Gold Diggers’ Song” or “We’re in the Money” is a song from the 1933 Warner Brothers film Gold Diggers of 1933, sung in the opening sequence by Ginger Rogers and the chorus.
    While the song does not appear in the film, 42nd Street, it was included in the 1980 Broadway stage musical adaptation of the classic film.
    The lyrics were written by Al Dubin and the music by Harry Warren. It is a standard and its melody is well known.
    The song’s lyrics reflect a positive financial turnaround and a fantasized end to the Great Depression.
Remember to have fun and be as loud and playful as you like! It is for Panto! …. oh no it isn’t …. oh, yes it is!!
Actor Hub Pantomime Hints and Tips!


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