Cinderella

Take a good helping of Hissing and Booing, add to this some audience participation, a larger than life panto Dame, in character even if not in size, a beautiful panto boy and girl, a sweet fairy plus a hard working Buttons  and two very wicked step sisters  and you have all the ingredients of a good family pantomime.

The story started with a flying Fairy Godmother played by Ann Mann who looked and sounded every bit the character she portrayed, of course this happiness was soon dampened when we meet The Baroness Hardup and her two daughters Chardonnay and Rose, played by Nicholas Challenger, Joseph Bairstow and Philip Burgess respectively.  All three of these characters were well received by the entire audience and no wonder, they managed to cause all sorts of havoc especially for poor Cinderella played beautifully by Toni Cook. Toni looked every bit the sweet principal girl both in her rags and also when she wore her fabulous ball gown, Toni also wowed the audience with her sweet singing voice.

Playing poor Cinderella’s downtrodden father, Baron Hardup was Shaun Bradley who managed to get all the sympathy from the audience but of course none from his wife, The Baroness, alongside the Baron and Cinderella we had of course Buttons who loves Cinders with all his heart but whose advances are always thwarted, in this part was Paul Burgess, who even though Cinders was not in love with him the entire audience was. Each time he came on stage you knew everyone would be hoping there might just be that sparkle between them but each time his advances would be spurned.  

No panto is complete without the broker’s men and here we had two who worked hard all the way through the entire show to gain laugh after laugh with their antics, well done to Lee Phillips and Dan Schofield as Bodjit and Breaksit.

As we all know Cinders ends up with Prince Charming played to perfection by Alison Wade whose singing always send shivers down my spine and here once again she did the same, alongside Alison as her trusty servant was Hollie Riley as Dandini, Hollie was also able to pull out all the stops to bring this character to life.

It is also worthwhile to mention Dave Froggatt as The Lord Chamberlain, Martin Crowther as King Claude and Lynne Schofield as Queen Camilla all playing their respective pats to the full and enjoyment of the audience.  Backed up by an adult chorus of nineteen and a Junior and Senior Chorus of thirty-two children this certainly was a well rehearsed company effort and totally enjoyed by all the children in the audience and those not-so-young children in the audience.

Many congratulations to all involved.

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