Cinderella

Great use was made of the young teams of dancers in this Pantomime, right from the opening when an open stage went dark and the dancers filed on to open the show with a burst of dance, colour and sound. These young dancers had been well drilled by both Jasmin Towler – choreographer and Marie Cunningham – Vocal Coach. Not only was their dancing very effective and coordinated throughout the show but also their singing. Sometimes dancers want to dance, and singers want to sing, there appeared to be no such problem here, all mouths were open, all moves were there, smart and snappy, well done to you all.

This well-known story needed no enhancement apart from the local references which were much appreciated by the audience, and perhaps not known by me despite having lived in Wisbech in the past for around four years. The set was a very simple backdrop painted on to the walls of the theatre with the hint of a building either side of the stage by a projecting door, roofline and chimney stack. I must admit I was wondering how Cinderella’s carriage was going to appear in such a small space, I shouldn’t have been surprised, I wasn’t disappointed when an amazing illuminated carriage appeared from the back of the set, the whole audience should have been amazed as I was, it looked really stunning.

The story revolves around Buttons, Cinderella, Prince Charming and to a lesser extent Dandini. This show revolved around, to an extent the evil Stepmother Baroness Griselda, and to a much greater extent to the ugly Sisters - Bella Needs a Fella and Stella Artois who appeared to have great fun. 

The Vocal talents of Lizzie Bryant as Prince Charming outshone the cast, playing her role with charm and flair, however the star of the show was Rheanon Hanks as Cinderella, a very competent performance showing the down trodden servant girl, the affection she had for Buttons, the contempt for her sisters and the joy she had in the presence of the Prince. We all loved Cinderella! The Prince’s friend and Aide de Camp Dandini was well performed by Bridie, always a smile and some good reactions to the Sisters. It was Buttons job – Liam Nixon, to work with the audience and bring them into the show and he did this very well HELLO BUTTONS. The story opened with Fairy Godmother – Joanne Johnson giving us an introduction to a Once Upon a Time scenario, she gave a lovely performance and would be an enhancement to any Pantomime in this role. There is always a baddie and this year’s nasty character was stepmother Baroness Griselda, performed with a suitably nasty turn by Jenny Bryant. We learnt to boo her very quickly in this well-tuned performance. We saw little of Baron Hardup, but his unstable walk and hen-pecked role was perfected by Billy Garner (reminded me of the Grandfathers walk in Chitty and was also reminiscent of Dyke van Dyke in Mary Poppins Returns). Not only did Jasmin choregraph the show, she also played Muffin the Cat, suitably slinky but she was also devious as we all thought she was Baroness Griselda’s side kick, but she turned against her and stood up for Cinderella at the end. For all these principals the dialogue was clear, well spoken, the acting and movement was effective and performed well, the songs were clear and wonderfully sung. All these principals were also supported by two Major Domo’s Jack and Ted – or was its Ted and Jack.

What a pleasant change to see younger actors taking on the roles of the ugly sisters, so often they are older actors, but why? Rob Williams as Bella Needs a Fella and Owen Angier as Stella Artois were a great couple of ugly sisters, their repartee and interaction was very good, quick witted and blowzily loud, obnoxious and endearing in their own way, these two bounced off Cinderella, Buttons and The Baroness as well as each other with style. They had the benefit of great costumes and great make-up, Owen being the younger of the two looked almost too pretty to be an ugly sister. They were both believable ugly sisters living their roles to the full and interacting well with the audience bringing them to life, most of the time (the audience that is). I did not notice anything to fault their performances, giving great gusto to the Pantomime.

I liked the fact that there were not too many songs, the company numbers were well performed with a large number on the small stage, so volume was good. I must admit that with no set changes I wasn’t sure which scene I was watching for the first 3 – 4 scenes. The costumes were excellent so a big congratulations to Cynthia, Gay and Amy, Wigs and Make-up were very good so congratulations also to Kerry and her team. All in all, a show that the crew, the cast and the two directors could be proud of. Bring on Dick Whittington, there’s a role for you there Jasmin!

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