Starsky and Fonz play pantomime to hisses and boos

Starsky and Fonz play pantomime to hisses and boos
Paul Michael Glaser is seen on stage playing Captain Hook in this undated photograph released in London December 12, 2007. Starsky and The Fonz are having the time of their lives being hissed and booed every night by hundreds of screaming children. For the Hollywood stars of the cult TV series have taken with gusto to playing in pantomime, a rumbustious British theatrical tradition with deafening audience participation. (Churchill Theatre/Handout/Reuters)WOKING (Reuters) - Starsky and The Fonz are having the timeof their lives being hissed and booed every night by hundredsof screaming children.
The Hollywood stars of the two U.S. cult TV series arereveling in their roles for pantomime, a rumbustious Britishtheatrical tradition with deafening audience participation.
In the run-up to Christmas every year, theatres acrossBritain are packed with kids often enjoying their first tasteof the stage -- classic fairy tales given slapstick treatment.
Pantomime is all about joining in. Everyone shouts "LookOut Behind You" as the villain creeps up on the unsuspectinghero, ancient jokes are recycled, audience singalongs arecompulsory.
Paul Michael Glaser, who played Detective Dave Starsky inthe 1970s hit TV show "Starsky and Hutch" and Henry Winkler,the leather-coated Fonz from U.S. sitcom "Happy Days," haveboth abandoned sunny California for chilly provincial Englandto play Captain Hook in two different "Peter Pan" productions.
"I like to play silly and Captain Hook is such a wonderfulbaddie isn't he," Glaser told Reuters.
"It's great that Britain has this tradition of pantomime.It's great that audience participation -- which is at least asold as Shakespeare -- still continues here today."
In sharp contrast to life behind the camera, Winkler said:"Here there is an audience of nearly 2,000 all screaming andyelling. The Americans don't understand the phenomenal give andtake, the phenomenal interaction."
Winkler is strutting his stuff in the genteel southernEnglish town of Woking while Glaser is over-acting like mad onthe other side of London in suburban Bromley.
They tread the boards twice a day six times a week sostamina is vital.
Asked what the secret was to playing pantomime, Winklersaid "There are three secrets -- one is stay healthy, two isstay healthy and three is have the most fun you can possiblyhave with your clothes on."
On Peter Pan's press night, Woking's New Victoria Theatrehad to be evacuated after a smoke alarm went off.
On return after the all-clear, Winkler brought the housedown as he quipped "I just want to know who wanted to pee thatbadly" before bounding back into action.
For Glaser, playing the villainous Hook at Bromley'sChurchill Theatre is a chance to go back to his roots.
"Coming from a theatre background, I think the energy of itall is a blast," he said.
"It's a completely different craft to acting in front of acamera. There's an immediacy to film but it's not as gratifyingas theatre," he said.
And Winkler clearly loves the nightly battle to get hislines out amid all the good-natured booing: "Theinteractiveness of live theatre is more potent than the bestMalt Scotch."
(Editing by Paul Casciato)