Cinderella

Cinderella at The Solway Hall was my first pantomime of the season and despite miserable weather outside, Whitehaven Theatre Group’s sell-out production certainly got me in the festive spirit!

More often than not in pantomime, the title character usually fades into the background after the opening number and then gets forgotten about until Act Two.  Thankfully Cassie McCluskey gave a knockout performance as Cinderella and I thought the solo number’s she was given were sang brilliantly and with immaculate diction. (As an unrelated aside, during one of her songs I prayed to the amateur gods that someone in our area stages Beautiful : The Carole King Musical soon - Cassie needs to be cast as Carole!)…I digress!

Having to do the brunt of the legwork with the audience participation Jodie Morgan gave a wonderful turn as Buttons. Her interaction with the crowd got them onside from her first appearance and kept the action moving along nicely.  

Shaun Donald and Jim Morgan were a perfect double act as Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters, Kim and Chloe respectively. 

I must give Ross Bickerdike a mention for his portrayal of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother.  Totally outrageous and totally fabulous, he commanded the stage upon every entrance and worked well with Cassie – I really enjoyed Tonight Belongs To You, a high-octane end of Act One.

The show zipped along at a good pace, and so congratulations must go to Kayleigh Donald in her directorial debut.   Kayleigh was ably supported by Amy Morton who provided us with some great choreography throughout the show.  

The script written by Alex Jackson fell short of the mark for me.  I felt a lot of the routines were too long and written to pad out time making the plot seem somewhat subservient at times.  Thankfully, WTG made some fantastic song choices, we were treated to songs from The Prom, Enchanted and not to mention a Cannon & Ball tune which was still in my head weeks later!  The only thing I would have maybe reconsidered once the show was in front of an audience was the positioning of Believe from The Polar Express.   Following a really energetic finale, (and despite being well sung) it felt an unusual move to send the audience home with a low tempo, low energy number.

From a technical perspective, the show was well thought out.  Lighting was kept relatively modest and the sound was mixed well, on the whole.

The set design was a mix of backcloths alongside an LED Video Wall with a number of props being made for the production in-house.  Kudos to the stage team, I thought the attention to detail and craftmanship of the Tardis, particularly, was exceptional.  The transformation was simple, but was very smart how the video and props were used together to create the coach reveal.  It’s layering different elements like this that makes the simplest of trick so much more interesting to watch from out front!

Overall, I had a fabulous afternoon at The Solway Hall, thanks as always for the hospitality.  A Happy New Year to all at WTG - I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings!

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