Cinderella

~~Being a big kid at heart when it comes to pantomimes I was looking forward to this my second one of the season and I was not disappointed. This one started out a little differently with the Fairy Godmother appearing on screens at either side of the stage. A little different again as not only were two ugly sisters played by men but also the Fairy Godmother and I have to say it worked extremely well.
There were all the usual “He’s behind you” gags you would expect in any panto and the whole audience, not only the kids loved it from start to finish. In the principal boy and girl parts we had Nicole Walton as Cinderella and Clare Heins as Prince Charming who worked extremely well together to make a perfect couple. Of course no Cinderella is complete without a Buttons and here we had Thomas Flowers as a young Buttons who was able to work the audience well and prove to be a good pal to his love interest Cinders.
Another character needed in this panto is of course Dandini, Prince Charming’s assistant, played by Debbie Hair who proved to be a very good partner to Clare Heins as Charming; both were the typical “leggy” girl you would expect for these parts. In the parts of Baron Hardup and his wicked wife were Trevor Jones and Sue Sheppard respectively, they were both able to bounce off each other to get the most out of their parts, the Baroness of course has two “daughters” who are not very nice to say the least to poor old Cinders. I say “daughters” as I guessed they were both played again by men in the guise of Richard Goodall and Dale Vaughan, I suspect one had not been taking her hormone tablets resulting in a very bearded lady!
I enjoyed the performances from Sarah Clarkson and Emily Speake as Bib and Bob respectively, they were a great double act and had the audience laughing whenever they came onto the stage.
I said at the start of my review the Fairy Godmother was played by a guy, Paul Barron and to me he was the star of this show, from the moment he appeared he had the audience in the palm of his hands, they loved him and quite rightly too as he worked his socks off, or should that be tights off, from start to finish, he was excellent. I really enjoyed the transformation scene where Cinderella is transformed into the beautiful princess for the ball, this was different in the fact that it was done by video with Cinders walking off stage and into this sort of fairy land to be dressed in her best ball gown and into her crystal coach, the effects department had done a great job of this.
Congratulations to all involved and the cast who not only performed but then lined up to say good bye to the audience.

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