Cinderella

Thank you very much for inviting me to your production of “Cinderella”. It was fantastic to finally get to the Muse Theatre to watch Wranglers perform their annual pantomime after the devastating cancellation of Mother Goose just days before opening last year. It was clear that all of the members of the audience also felt this as the theatre was filled to the brim of excited people ready for their annual panto fix.

This was a fantastic new piece of writing by one of members of the company and I must give a high commendation on such a well written and hilarious script. It had all the standard and important details that make it “Cinderella” with a huge sprinkling of jokes that were so current based on observations from the last couple of months. My wife and I were roaring with laughter at many of the jokes involving prince charming and his family. The audience were well behind it and it allowed for so much flexibility giving many members of your large cast plenty to get involved with.

A choice was made in this production to not use radio mics and I must say this lead to some issues with not being able to hear the soloist during some songs. Throughout all of dialogue the cast were strong and projected extremely well right to the back of the auditorium, but as soon as the music started and it was just a solo or duet I found it particularly hard to hear the vocalists above the track volume. A shame as there are some very strong singers within the company that I have previously heard at other shows. It must be said however that this was better for most of the chorus songs and that once the rest of the cast joined in it was plenty loud enough.

The chorus were very heavily involved in this production which was really nice to see. So often chorus members have sustained periods of time in the dressing room, not in this show. There were numerous dance numbers which involved everyone and these were slick and well-rehearsed. I am a big fan of Ibiza Classics and so that number went down a storm with me. I loved the innovative use of the light sticks and the dancing in the dark to show these off was effective.

This production had people from aged six all the way up to sixty I dare say. Everyone had something to do. It was great to see the youngsters being used regularly as the fairy godmother’s assistants. These little segments were quite funny and the children were hilarious. The Fairy Godmother was excellent and the way she handled some of the little ones was so naturally. One of the younger girls got a little upset and went to visit her mum in the audience before eventually returning still quite upset. The Fairy Godmother scooped her up in her arms and continued her lines (and subsequent dance) without missing a beat which seemed to be enough to cheer her up.

Buttons had excellent presence and his interactions with the audience were natural. He was in his element and took great joy in making the audience worry just who was going to be his next target as he walked up the aisle. Cinderella was another fabulous performer and performed her role with great aplomb I particularly enjoyed her strictly come x-factor style performance to win the hand of prince charming. There was no shortage of audience participation and as one of the Fairy Godmother assistants hilariously pointed out this was a fabulous way of covering up the larger scene changes. The audience loved the moments to get involved however and a particular highlight was the audience race of passing their pumpkin from the back of the auditorium to the front.

There was a great selection of songs used throughout this show though “We Love to Boogie” was almost certainly the crowd favourite of this production. Costumes throughout were excellent and of a very high standard. It was nice to see a not so “cliché” ball gown for Cinderella as she made her way to the royal ball. The ugly sisters’ various dresses were vast and increasingly ridiculous and had the audience in ruptures. The Madonna cones and Lady Gaga outfits were particularly funny.

A great evening was had by all and I truly look forward to returning next year for some more adventures to panto-land.

Congratulations on a fantastic show.

Kind regards

   Ryan Procter

   District 3 Representative

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