Cinderella

Jarrow Musical Theatre Company brought the curtain down on a highly successful year with their Annual Christmas Pantomime offering of Cinderella. It was another triumph for them and provided a fine evening’s entertainment for an audience who lapped up all you would expect to see from a good offering of this genre.  A sign of how good a pantomime is is how the audience is drawn into it and become an extra member of the cast during the audience participation sections. There were no worries on that score as they were happily involved from start to finish.

Under Michelle’s direction the show was visually attractive with excellent scenery, costumes, props, sound and sound effects, and musical choice that dovetailed seamlessly into whatever scene was being played out. She also has the ability to draw the best out of the cast and this was clearly evident from the happy faces on stage.

The Principal Cast line up was strong with Frances Wood giving us a lovely rendition of the title role showing both the vulnerability and strength of the character coupled with a fine voice. Lawrence Clark and Grayson Wood were ideally cast as the Ugly Sisters and played the Gruesome Twosome with outrageous relish. Amy Morton played the role of Prince Charming as the name implies with that added panache which is required for the part, whilst Luke Carr gave good support to her as the  equerry Dandini. From the dark side we had Hermione Hardup the evil stepmother who was portrayed excellently by Danielle Roche who exuded all the traits one associates with the character whilst Darren Dyson as her downtrodden husband Baron Hardup filled the role well. Other good support came from Lana Wood as the Fairy Godmother and Neil Hindson as the Lord Chamberlain

Last but certainly by no means least was Jillian Reay Hindson as Buttons. For me she was the pick of the Principals with an effervescent portrayal of the role. It is the lynch pin of the show and acts as the conduit between cast and audience. If this fails it becomes hard work. It did not and her interaction both with the cast and the audience was first class

Finally congratulations to the Adult and Junior Choruses and Dancers who performed to a very high standard to give extra depth to the show and Freda Carney and Joanna Barron for their very fine   musical direction and choreography respectively.

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