Cinderella

Sunderland Theatre Company have a talented line up and their talent was certainly showcased in this telling of the most famous pantomime of them all.

Restricted with staging limitations from a set perspective, STCo made the best of their facilities and the stage was filled with colour from the very good range of costumes, the finale was particularly glamourous which is a panto must for me. The production was full of songs and opportunities for audience participation, and the choreography was interesting to watch and well performed by the whole cast.

Panto isn’t an easy genre of performance, we are asked to break that 4th wall which doesn’t come naturally to every performer and any good panto needs a good villain and this was provided perfectly by Rebecca Crackett as the Wicked Stepmother. She was glamourous, evil and commanded the stage with her every entrance. Her nemesis was played by Rebecca Smith as the Fairy Godmother, endearing and sweet in her portrayal. Mathew Clarke worked his absolute socks off as Buttons, he never let his energy drop and was able to engage a mainly adult audience in all of the panto participation getting them onside from the outset. A glamourous and confident Cinderella was played by Lois-Lorraine Smith, not your usual sugary principal girl, she also gave very good vocal performances. Her Prince Charming was played by Kristan Bailey who again had a strong confident stage presence and gave good vocal performances, his sidekick Dandini was ably played by Sean Barrett who was the perfect attendant and had a good contrasting character. The ugly sisters are always the highlight of any production of Cinderella and this was certainly the case with “Prosecco and Cava” played by Nathan Dippie and Stephen Fay, they were vile and uncouth in all the right ways! The Baron played by Christian Hogan was suitably overwhelmed by the women in his life, and Sprinkly and Tinkly portrayed Antoinette Brindley and Helen Clarke popped up from time to time adding extra mischief and mayhem. The supporting roles of the Herald (Hannah Brettell), Tarzan (Jordan Hildrew) and the Ghost (Dylan Stobbs) all gave good performances, I particularly appreciated the Herald signing during the ballroom number.  The ensemble performances were also very good, had great energy and provided good support to the principal cast.

Congratulations to the whole team for putting together a fun production to start the year! I am looking forward to seeing "Kinky Boots". 

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