Cinderella

Over the years, Phoenix Players have developed a tradition that the first night of their pantomime is a ‘charity night’ for an audience of people with special needs, organised with the help of the local Lions Group.  So it was that I joined a delightfully excited audience as the curtain went up on Cinderella.  Together, we cheered, booed and sang our way through a great evening of seasonal entertainment, full of warmth and jollity.

Although a traditional pantomime in most respects, Phoenix’s Cinderella saw a few departures from the norm, which is always interesting to see.  These started with Lisa Cowley’s effervescent Buttons, for once not mooning over Cinders but instead enjoying a charming little romance with the Prince’s manservant Dandini (Baz Stilinski).  These two had a couple of nice scenes together, and also worked very well in their respective scenes with Cinders and the Prince.

Cinderella herself was played by Meg Harris, who gave the character a nicely positive outlook even when she was being harassed by her nasty relatives!  She also showed off a nice singing voice during her solos.  As her Prince Charming, Samm Lees had a funny line in ‘posh speak’ and was very entertaining as she sought the common touch when swapping characters with Dandini. 

It seems as though none of the men in the cast could be persuaded to don a frock, because there was no Dame (a character that I did miss), and the ugly sisters were instead a couple of ‘Horrid Sisters’, Rachel Harris (Salmonella) and Karen McDonald (Rubella).  These two brought loads of fun and energy to their roles, giving us all plenty of opportunity to boo their antics and enjoying a long scene with the amusingly alliterative Felix, the Family Phantom.  As their parents, Lisa Maxwell was nicely nasty as Baroness Hardupp, and Adam Rastall suitably put-upon as Baron Lionel Hardupp, whose full first name, we learnt, was Linoleum! 

In another departure from tradition, Michael Bishop played the Fairy Godfather, resplendent in a shiny golden tail suit.  The scene in which he sent Cinderella to the ball was particularly well done, with the very effective use of UV-illuminated cut-outs to accompany his song. 

No rundown of the characters would be complete without mention of Zip (Callum McCormick) and Velcro (Graham Robson), who explained their coming supremacy over poor Buttons – very clever!  These two formed a Morecambe and Wise-style partnership, entertaining us all with a stream of corny jokes in their front-of-curtain scenes.  Velcro also had a good running gag in which he kept tripping up the stairs, which was brilliantly executed.  Another amusing double act was formed by Neil McBride and David Dunn as a couple of hapless flunkeys sent out to find the owner of the glass slipper. 

Alongside the named roles, there was a five strong chorus of ‘villagers, serfs, minions, louts and layabouts’ from the village of Tottering-on-the-Brink (good name!)  They all added plenty of colour to the songs and group scenes, which included an ‘I’m Kenough’ nod to the recent Barbie movie (which, embarrassingly, had to be explained to me!) 

Director Andi Hardi did a good job of navigating us through all the panto chaos, and Steve Bird extracted an impressive range of sounds from a single keyboard in providing the musical accompaniment.  Chloe Alice contributed some nice choreography for the musical numbers.  The scenes were set by means of some good backdrops – I particularly liked the countryside one, in which we could see in the distance that Tottering was home to a large Ferris wheel!  The costume department also did well, in particular providing the Horrid Sisters with a succession of impressive outfits. 

My congratulations to all at Phoenix for a great fun evening, and well done for introducing the charity night, which led to such a great atmosphere.  Thanks also for the warm welcome, and I look forward to seeing you again when ‘The Scottish Play’ (no, not that one!) visits the Bear Pit.

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