Cinderella

It’s that time again, and of course the story of Cinderella needs no introduction. John Want had collected a jolly and talented team who valiantly mastered the corny jokes (of course, the cornier the better, oh yes they are!), and provided some delightful pantomime magic to thrill their young and not so young audience. The whole enterprise was interspersed with exciting musical numbers, more about those later.

The scenery was delightful. It makes such a difference to have a painted backdrop, especially, I would imagine, for the younger members of the audience. Nothing like that chocolate-box village of thatched houses, with gardens full of flowers, and the village pump in the centre of the green, or the exciting Fetcham Festival scene of fairground stalls, with the church in the background. All very charming. The vision of the decaying Hardup Hall was very amusing, yet sad, because we all loved poor Baron Hardup.

Costumes were elaborate and, in many cases, amazing. Baron Hardup and the King were particularly splendid, richly clothed in full Charles II era attire. The Fairy Godmother was in cream lace, with pretty wings touched with pink, and wore a pink tiara, if I remember correctly, and waved a pink wand. Prince Charming and Dandini looked suitably dashing. Cinderella wore a pretty peasant-type red and white outfit at Hardup Hall, but was obviously transformed, wearing a gorgeous satin blue gown with tiara for the ball, and a beautiful wedding dress for the finale. Buttons wore a bright blue page’s outfit, first with a school-cap type hat, jauntily worn to the side, with panels of bright primary colours, later in the more formal scenes, he changed to a proper page’s hat. The Ugly Sisters were resplendent in many different outfits and wigs, one more outrageous than the other. Mention must be made of their gorgeous makeup-of-many colours. Credit must go here to the makeup team and tutors of Guildford College Media Makeup Diploma course – they must have had a whale of a time!

The proceedings began in the usual way with the Fairy Godmother’s rhyming prologue, followed by Button’s ‘Do you want to be in my gang?’ scene, with the important present (Call me if anyone tries to touch it, gang!), which later played a vital part in the story. We then met the villagers and the baker (John Want, who also wrote and directed the show), who were all looking forward to the Fetcham Festival. For the first time we were entranced by the young dancers, who appeared in their green, or black and white, or pink dresses, as the whole company danced so well to ‘I’ve got a feeling’. The Prince expressed to Dandini his desire to just meet and mingle with ordinary people, and thus he and Dandini changed places for a day.

He coached Dandini in how to speak like a prince: It’s simple, say after me ‘Air’, then ‘Hair’, then ‘Lair’,  now join them together ‘airhairlair’ ( oh hello). This caused a great laugh, and Vykki Mash pulled this off very well and indeed made a great Dandini. Ella Kay also made a fine, believable Prince, and they shone in their dance number ‘Kiss’. Sharon (with one R) and Karren (with two Rs) made their first astonishing appearance, with a rather incontinent dog, where the audience got rather wet, and launched into a great performance of ‘Man, I feel like a woman’. Steve Fitton as Sharon and Josh Locke as Karren made a great pair of Ugly Sisters and got all the humour out of their roles.

At the Fetcham Festival, Cinderella and the Prince first met and sang ‘Best Day of My Life’ with great feeling and gusto. Cinderella, of course, thought she’d just met Dandini, as the day of the swap was here.

At Hardup Hall, Baroness Devilla Hardup was being suitably mean, with her daughters, giving Cinderella all the nasty chores. Moyra Brookes can do mean and horrid rather well, and seemed to delight in this role. There was a super rendition of ‘Scrub, Scrub’, as Buttons and the delightful dancers gave Cinderella a hand. Samantha Potten must be congratulated on her choreography, and her talented dance troup, the girls were exceptionally good. Graham Botterill made Baron Hardup a real character, we all felt so sorry for him, with his care-worn air, such a nice chap, if a bit dim. He couldn’t cope with the scary debt collectors (Julian Edney and Mark Leddin), but Buttons could, with a very clever trick, all done with numbers. Millie Jane Franks was a fine, larger than life Buttons, bouncing about all bright and breezy, though of course she got some good ‘ahs’ when she tried unsuccessfully to woo Cinderella and was disappointed.

Mark Leddin also played the King, and made him a real character too, not just a caricature, with all his strange and funny spoonerisms. Joanne Rowlands made a suitably regal and yet fun Queen. A ball was decided upon, to great excitement.

The Fairy Godmother, having tested Cinderella’s kindness successfully, came to her rescue after Devilla had forced her to tear her own invitation up. Annabelle Farrell played this role well.

The pumpkin and the mouse were transformed into a delightful coach, which appeared on the turntable, and a somewhat scary mouse driver (one of several roles played with vim by Melanie McCabe). The coach proceded on a very long-drawn-out drive to the castle, set cleverly to a video, the mouse feverishly running, Cinderella doing her hair and putting on her makeup with a mirror all the while, as the romantic scenery flew past.

Thus the first half ended. If I may make a small criticism, it had lasted one and a quarter hours. I wonder if, for a young audience, 50-60 minutes would be better,

The ball scene proceded in the usual way, with Cinderella and the Prince falling for each other, of course. Catherine Poplett made a lovely Cinderella, very sweet and bright, optimistic despite her hard life, kind and thoughtful, both with Buttons and her father.

We had the usual slapstick scene with the Baker and his cream buns; the audience sing-a-long to the tune of 10 green bottles; a ghost interlude with Hardup, Buttons and the sisters. All the elements of panto were carried off with great aplomb. The finale, against a black backdrop with sparkly lights, was to lovely versions of ‘Going to the Chapel’ and ‘Oh what a Night’. A small explosion from the balcony led to loads of strips of coloured paper descending onto the audience, like something from a Trump rally. The kids loved it!

So a very jolly Christmas evening of panto was had by all. Congratulations to Director John Want and his whole team. Hope to see more of those young dancers in the future!

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