Cinderella

This was my second visit to this group at the relatively new Pavilions in Teignmouth (4 years old). It has taken all the amateur groups who now use the Pavilions a few years to find their feet in this multipurpose venue and to discover what works best and what doesn’t.

A big difference from last year’s Shaldon panto was to introduce a raised stage, rather than use the flat playing area, and this worked very well indeed because it enabled them to place the band at the front in a recess, rather than to the side, or to the rear behind the scenery. I much preferred this arrangement. For me, it is essential to have the band in front of the players to enable them to respond quickly to what is happening on stage (especially the percussionist) and also to enable interaction between performers and musicians.

This year’s show was directed and musically directed by Chris Matanle who did a sterling Job. His band of five players were magnificent and were one of the high spots of the show producing a great brassy sound. There was a good choice of music which ensured that all musical numbers were lively and up-tempo.

The society had assembled a very strong principle lineup with absolutely no weak links at all. I rather liked the laid-back performances of Bodget and Leggett (Rozel Ridgway and Ro Stanley) although I would’ve preferred them to have been costumed in the style of the other characters rather than in modern costumes.

Last year’s director Linsie Kemp was a very motherly Fairy Godmother and gave an endearing performance while Jess Kemp and Kate Sutton made a traditional but striking Prince Charming and Dandini, showing particular strength in their musical numbers.

I always like Vanessa Hurley in her performances and she was a nicely stuck up and snooty baroness lording it over her hapless husband Baron Hardup nicely played by Liam Doyle.

Josie Parkin gave a very attractive performance as Cinderella and I particularly liked her kitchen scene with Buttons where she was able to display the more vulnerable side to the character.  The rags to riches change on stage worked well too.

However, the entire production was dominated by the ugly sisters played magnificently by Gary Abraham and Ian Clatworthy and an absolutely superb Buttons played by young Bradley Swinbank. These three had the audience in the palm of their hands, particularly Bradley, and every time they were on stage the production really came to life. They are past masters at responding quickly to unexpected heckles and happenings, had perfect comic timing, and easily drew the audience in to their business on stage. It was a joy to watch them.

There was nice neat and well drilled choreography, which ensured that the musical numbers were never static and the choreography was tailored to the abilities of the company.

Technically this company is in very good hands indeed and the lighting and sound with first rate. A beautiful coach for the act one finale seemed to appear out of nowhere as I’m not sure where they found the space to keep it. But the ballroom scene produced a double deck set with an enormous sweeping staircase, so which ever part of the Tardis produced the coach also produced the staircase !! Scenery was very attractive and special effects were handled well. It would have been nice to have had a front cloth to replace the blacks but I understand that space was an issue, but the gauze was very effectively used.

Costumes were very attractive and colourful, and the Uglies costumes were superb.

As everyone will know I am a great fan of Alan Fraynes scripts, and I am very familiar with this script having directed it three times myself, and this company extracted every ounce of comedy from it. My only criticism was that the pace occasionally sagged in the first half but I know that the director agreed with me on this one - for this particular performance. I would also have underlined some of the entrances and exits of the characters with play ins and play-offs and also had more pratfalls and sound effects from percussion but that is just a personal preference really.

I think I did mention in last year’s review that I felt some of the musical numbers were a bit too long and I did feel that again this year. For me a pantomime musical number shouldn’t be any longer than 1 1/2 minutes or two minutes maximum. However that said I really enjoyed listening to the band play the musical numbers and they were well performed.

This society really is a credit to Shaldon and Teignmouth and I’m pleased to report that they played to totally full houses which were very well deserved by this hard-working team, and the tremendous reception at the end of the show left the cast in no doubt what the punters thought of their efforts.

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