THE Grand Opera House pantomime in York is in new hands with Three Bears Productions taking over after 17 years of New Pantomime Productions shows.

Aladdin will be staged by vastly experienced producer Chris Moreno, production manager Russ Spencer and pantomime stalwart Stuart Wade, the former Emmerdale soap star, who will direct the show as well as playing Wishee Washee in his 40th year in showbusiness.

Starring alongside him from December 9 to January 1 next year will be former Hear'Say singer turned musical theatre actress Suzanne Shaw, as Princess Jasmine, and stand-up comedian and The Chase quiz show regular Paul Sinha, in his pantomime debut as Abanazar.

York Press:

Suzanne Shaw, who will play Princess Jasmine in Aladdin

Dancer and choreographer Debbie McGee, in her first panto since the death of husband Paul Daniels in March, will play the Genie of the Ring; Carl Tracey, from the children's musical group Go!Go!Go! on the Nick Jr television channel, will be Aladdin; veteran Yorkshire actor Frazer Hines will take the role of the Emperor of Peking, and Steve Wickenden will be the dame, Widow Twankey.

Taking over from Simon Barry's long run of pantomimes, the newly formed company will combine state-of-the-art 3D special effects with an upgrade in set design, costumes and slapstick and a new script by Mr Moreno, who was a director of the Grand Opera House in the early 1990s and has more than 200 pantomime productions to his name.

Yorkshireman Stuart Wade, who played Dame Tilly Trott in Jack And The Beanstalk last winter, has a long association with the Grand Opera House pantomime, both as an actor, usually in the "silly billy" roles such as Buttons and Wishee Washee, and as a director or assistant director. He now teams up with Russ Spencer, part of the Eurovision pop group Scooch, who starred in the past two Grand Opera House pantos, and Mr Moreno, who will be the company's head of finance.

York Press:

Comedian Paul Sinha, making his pantomime debut as Abanazar in Aladdin

"We're a self-financed company, with Chris calling on his many, many years' experience as a producer," said Mr Wade. "We've formed to do this pantomime, which we hope will be the first venture of many, and because of the nature of what we do, I'm sure children's shows will be part of that.

"We have a stock of 5,000 costumes, hundreds of thousands of pounds of new sets, and the set and costumes we're using in Aladdin last featured in a Lily Savage show, which gives you a sense of where we're heading. Our aim is to make the Grand Opera House pantomime as special as Billy Pearce's shows at the Bradford Alhambra."

Tickets for Aladdin will go on sale at 10am on June 21 on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york