Cinderella

What do you get if you cross a mixture of songs from musicals and other genres, slapstick humour, energetic dances, a love story and of course, some thigh slaps? That’s right, a pantomime.  I made a visit to Hilltop for what will be my first of four panto trips this year and saw a performance that had all of those things in abundance!

The production featured many well-known songs that had been cleverly re-written to suit the subject matter and these were delivered extremely well by the strong cast on show.

In the title role of Cinderella, Laura Campbell gave a great performance.  She had good energy, strong vocals in the musical numbers and moved well in the choreography.  An enjoyable performance.

Christian Bright took on the role of Buttons and delivered a nice performance.  He had good vocals during the musical numbers and engaged well with the audience when it was necessary.

Emily Porter and Amy Phillips were a thigh-slappingly excellent double act as Prince Charming and Dandini.  Both delivered strong performances, engaging well with the audience and their fellow cast members.  They absolutely shone in the musical numbers throughout the production.  Their harmonies, together with Laura in ‘I think I wanna marry you’ were simply outstanding!

I really enjoyed Linda Coombes’ performance as the Fairy Godmother or, as she would say, Fairy G!  Her singing was excellent and she had a lovely character.

The traditional ‘ugly sisters’, Gertrude and Griselda, were played by Steve Williams and Tim Driscoll.  They were very colourful and very funny.  The pair worked well together and worked the audience well too.  The removal of the stocking to try on the crystal slipper left both the audience and the cast onstage in fits of laughter.  Strong performances both!

The remainder of the cast: Iain Campbell (Baron Hardup), Laura Hallas (Baroness Rubella), Helen Caudle (Bodget), Richard Jones (Leggett), Angie Driscoll (Chambers) and Sue Gambarini and Sarah Morgan (Hagan, the traditional panto horse) all gave performances that added energy and tempo to the production.

They were incredibly well supported by a fantastic ensemble cast featuring lots of young performers.  They all sang and danced well and delivered dialogue clearly when they were required to.  Look out for Mali Williams and Mabli Rogers - two future stars in years to come!

It was really lovely to hear music from a live band which didn’t overpower the vocalists.

From a technical perspective, the set was well constructed and fairly minimalistic in its approach.  Director Amanda Campbell explained her vision to me prior to the show and I think it worked well.  Lighting was well used and very effective.  There were some issues with sound during the performance.  Costumes were excellent; very colourful and suitable for the piece.

Overall, this was a great production and one that could easily have been at home on a much larger stage.  If this is a sign of things to come for the rest of my panto season, I’m in for a treat!  Thank you, Hilltop, for your warm welcome and your hospitality.  It was lovely to catch up with you all and I look forward to seeing you all next year.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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