Cinderella – What Happened Next?

Billed as a completely new and original story this production certainly lived up to this description, and the near capacity audience, which was great to see, on the first night were definitely in for a big surprise!

Picking up the tale after Cinderella had rushed off from the ball at midnight the action certainly veered off into the realms of the unexpected!

Wicked Witch Effre and her faithful but underappreciated cat Astrophe were causing havoc in Pantoland, things were going missing including Aladdin’s lamp and Cinders’ precious glass-slipper.

Flying in to save the day along came Dr What in his magnificent Time Machine, which gave great opportunity for some tongue twisting “what” banter like “What on earth!”, misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

Dr What and his entourage proceeded to transport everyone around the universe in search of the missing items and hopefully find the perpetrators and restore the status quo.

Thrown into this mix were a bevy of pantomine characters, two divergent dames, goodies and baddies, a charming chorus and an amalgamation of aliens.

Of course, all came right at the end, an endearing Tommy, Dick Whittington’s trusty cat, saved the day and Prince Charming turned up to claim his Cinderella – but what a journey!

Central to the story was of course Dr What who gave a very polished and accomplished performance, as did Witch Effre while the expressions and reactions of poor Astrophe rather got the audience on his side!

Particularly memorable were the two aliens Zhigg and Zhagg, effectively the “desperate duo” of the piece, who delivered their lines admirably despite being completely covered in metallic streamers and tinsel.

The two contrasting Dames added to the visuals created on stage, the shorter Fanny Fanackerpan using every opportunity to flutter her fan, and the taller Widow Twankey showing a natural stage presence for “her” debut performance.

Cinderella was feisty from the start, and the Prince was just as “charming” as could be!

In this script the role of Buttons was rather downplayed but together with Dandini gave sterling support with the rest of the cast, and a delightful Junior Chorus.

While the songs were well chosen and certainly fitted the story, which is not always the case, there were times when more music would have helped to break up the long spells of dialogue. Also, at times there was a touch too much swaying about, sometimes known as the “rocking billies”, and lines were occasionally lost coming in too quickly during the applause. Panto aficionados would also have had problems with the “baddies” entering and exiting stage right!

Small points in what was an innovative and extremely wordy production for which the cast deserve tremendous praise for nailing it – not a prompt to be heard!

There were some great sound effects, and back projection, the Forest Front Cloth was impressive, and the production team had obviously pulled out all the stops with the Time Machine, props and great costumes. Overall, there were some clever touches, and all made for a warmly received production.

The red and gold finale was simply “out of this world”

 

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