Cinderella

A packed house greeted us at Young Expressions performance of their panto, Cinderella, with a great playlist filling the hall for the walk in music. The songs all reflected themes within the Cinderella story and started to set the mood for a really enjoyable afternoon. I am always so impressed with the organisation and, especially the backstage parents who invest such a lot of time and hard work to enable these memories to be made for their children. There were a lot of new faces on the stage this time and they looked as if they were really enjoying themselves, especially in the song and dance numbers.

The directors, Denyse Donnell assisted by Emma Dyos, had set a great mood for the show and all the children sung and danced their hearts out. What a fabulous experience they are having with lights, costumes, makeup and music. The directors had brought this panto to the stage within 11 weeks and must be feeling extremely proud of the result.

The up-to-date backing tracks meant that all the children knew the songs and we were treated to some K Pop Demon Hunter tracks as well as old chestnuts like the Cha Cha Slide and I got the Magic in Me. Backing tracks do pose a problem sometimes with tuning but, on the whole, everyone joined in enthusiastically.

Tara George took on the role of Cinderella and performed it beautifully. Her voice was clear and strong and she took us all along with her tale of tragedy to happiness. The Fairy Godmother, played by Lottie Capp was wonderful. She had great stage presence and delivered her rhyming one liners really well. The Prince and Dandini, played by Aurelia Stevenson and Isla Staples respectively, had good on-stage rapport and really handled their roles beautifully. Isla introduced the whole show with a great solo in Good Morning Ingatestone and the Prince (Aurelia Stevenson) had a great thigh slapping delivery as befits any good Prince in a panto! Isabella Devito, as the wicked stepmother Lady Devilia, handled the booing for her baddie role with proper indifference and was a delicious baddie. Her 2 ugly daughters were enthusiastically played by Daniel Rust as the somewhat ‘over the top’ Beryl and Tom Stubley as the delightfully underplayed Cheryl. Tom has great timing when delivering one liners that belie his years. The energetic water pistol action did leave a few audience members rather wet but the beautician scene was delightfully ghastly! Snitch and Snatch, the palace security, were a new addition to the story and Sydnee Donnell and Millie Tattersall took on these roles delightfully and with great comic timing.

A word about the scene stealer, the panto horse, Ingatestone Ian. Well done Lauren Prent and Lily Earls Pierce for surviving a whole panto run as the horse. You both did a great job and you made ‘Ian’ a bit of a star!

Amber Innes, as Buttons, was great. She held together the show and handled the audience responses so well. We all were ‘sad, no really, a lot sadder than that’ just as she asked and everyone joined in her greeting every time she came on stage. Oh yes, we did!!!

This panto had everything you would expect including the funny song with actions ‘If I didn’t work for the Handsome Prince’ which needs such accurate timing and rhythm, and the beautiful transformation scene as Cinders goes to the ball.  All the young performers took on this show with enthusiasm and demonstrated the amount of hard work that is needed to remember all those moves and lines. You were all fabulous.

The lighting and sound, done by Ben and his team, was magical and I must really congratulate the whole company both on stage and behind the scenes for a great afternoon’s entertainment.

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