Coronation Street actor Ryan Mulvey, who portrays troubled teen Brody Michaelis, is set to take a break from the cobbles to star in a pantomime production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Epstein Theatre in Liverpool. The show runs from December 5, 2026 to January 3, 2027, marking a significant departure from his usual gritty soap storylines.
Brody's Journey on the Cobbles
Brody Michaelis first appeared on Coronation Street last year as the intimidating 'top dog' of Dylan Wilson's young offenders unit. His hostile behaviour was largely attributed to his abusive parents, Mick and Lou Michaelis, played by Joe Layton and Farrel Hegarty. Despite initially making enemies with residents, including police officer Lisa Connor-Swain (Vicky Myers), Brody's character softened after discovering his real father was another local officer, Kit Green (Jacob Roberts).
Following his parents' imprisonment—Mick for murdering Craig Tinker and Lou for attacking Gary Windass—Brody and his siblings Joanie and Shanice (Savanna Pennington and Molly Kilduff) were placed in the care of Sally and Tim Metcalfe (Sally Dynevor and Joe Duttine). This stable environment allowed Brody to reform, though he briefly fell into a car theft racket orchestrated by Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard).
Panto Announcement and Social Media Buzz
The Epstein Theatre announced Mulvey's casting via Instagram, sharing a poster of the actor in royal attire and captioning: 'We’re delighted to reveal that Coronation Street favourite Ryan Mulvey will star in this year’s spectacular family pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at The Epstein Theatre! Packed with laugh-out-loud comedy, dazzling costumes, stunning special effects and plenty of festive magic, this promises to be the biggest Christmas panto of them all!'
Mulvey shared the post on his own Instagram story with the caption 'oh no he isn’t', tagging comedian Jason Manford for tips. On-screen sister Savanna Pennington commented: 'Yes bro. I can’t wait to see this', while the mother of his other on-screen sibling, Diana Kilduff, replied: 'let’s get tickets together, Molly would love that'. Fellow cast member Junade Khan, who plays shady newcomer Idris Nazir, wrote: 'You’ll smash bro', and former on-screen mother Suzanne Hall added: 'love this!'.
ITV Relaxes Panto Rules
This panto appearance comes after ITV bosses relaxed their longstanding policy that prevented Coronation Street and Emmerdale actors from taking on outside roles. Previously, strict contracts barred stars from performing in pantomimes. An Emmerdale spokesperson confirmed the change when actor Bradley Riches announced his role in Further Adventures of Peter Pan: The Return of Captain Hook at Sunderland Empire. The spokesperson stated: 'We’ve agreed to release a few of the actors from Emmerdale and Coronation Street to appear in pantomime this year, we’ve been looking at this for a while and with plenty of notice, we’ve been able to release the actors for a limited time.'
