REVIEW: Cinderella at the Lighthouse, Poole

By the time you read this review, this year’s production of Cinderella at the Lighthouse Theatre in Poole will have almost finished its run but read on because the same team will be back next year with a production of Aladdin which is a title with more magical business and narrative than most other titles and is sure to be a good show. What does it take to be a great pantomime and why is the Poole team so effective? 

Firstly, it needs a writer and director who understands both his audience and the genre and brings a wealth of experience in appearing and producing shows. In Chris Jarvis who is in his fourth pantomime at the venue and who has almost thirty on Children's TV, the venue is lucky to have such experience at the heart of the production. The essential story beats must be part of the show, in the case of Cinderella (played by Charlotte Wood) when she first meets the Prince (played by Tyger Drew-Honey) in the woods, the invitation tearing scene with the Ugly sisters, Buttons trying to cheer her up with a nine-carrot necklace, the clock striking midnight and the slipper trying on scene. At Poole, all were present and delivered with charm in keeping with the traditions of the show. 

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Wycombe Swan Theatre

It is always exciting and interesting to see a well-known celebrity make their Pantomime debut and each season new familiar faces are attracted to the stage. I doubt if there has ever been a better celebrity debut than Vernon Kay at the Wycombe Swan as Dandini in Cinderella. Despite the fact that this is sometimes a supporting role he dominates the stage with a bubbly and happy personality and natural charm, he has the audience eating out of his hand from his first appearance. He shows an understanding of the pantomime genre and the nature of live theatre and engages the audience with his asides, looks and smiles. When it comes to introducing the Principal Boy, Prince Charming, he asks a young boy from the audience to come on the stage and do it for him and handles the moment delightfully. Why Cinderella does not fall for him instead of the Prince is a mystery until you remember that they are most of the time following Will Brenton’s excellent script. 

Of course, it takes a lot more than a star name to make a good show and this production has it all from the moment you enter the auditorium, you are transported to a magical world by the amazing digital set with banks of video screens framed by twisted tower portals. The digital scenery, which I had seen before at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, looked even better in the more intimate traditional theatre of the Swan. The technology meant we could see moving rivers, turning windmills, and burning fires with heart and butterfly motifs to add to the script. The transformation scene takes on a new dimension when the on-stage carriage takes off and flies into the distance and then returns and converts back into an onstage pumpkin. It's pure Pantomime magic. Of course, there is a risk in the technology and the frequent black screen was a distraction although Kay brilliantly ad-libbed about it, so it became part of the show. The inclusion of the Gino de Campo and Keith Lemon video projections seemed an unnecessary indulgence adding little especially when we have Jon Clegg on stage as Buttons doing his wonderful impressions of which we could have seen more. His opening routine included Kermit, Alan Carr, The Simpsons, Michael McIntyre, Paddy McGuiness and Sarah Millican while the projected images assisted recognition, the impressions and selected voices were so familiar that the material worked very well. He topically added in a reference to the postal strike when a knock at the door went down well and played the “she behind me” gag wonderfully, twice to a great audience reaction.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking

The Fairy Godmother of all pantomimes is back at the New Victoria Theatre Woking for the festive season, and it is a true Christmas treat for the whole family. It's the well-known rags-to-riches, magical pumpkin, glass slipper story set in Woking and full of panto magic.

This cast are just fantastic. Sarah Vaughan plays the title role and brings a graceful beauty to it. Samuel Wilson-Freeman's Prince Charming is suitably dashing and has great fun on stage; his dance break in the Act 2 opener is awesome! The Fairy Godmother, played by Jenny Gayner, ties the story together and brings festive magic. Her aura and sparkle shine through, and her levitating trick had the whole audience guessing.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Salisbury Playhouse

Salisbury Playhouse took a year off in 2021 from Pantomime and therefore Cinderella was their first in the venue for three years. They borrowed the script from the creative team behind last year’s Newbury Corn Exchange Pantomime, Clare Plested, Adam Brown, and Amanda Wilsher with its fresh take on the Ugly Sisters as social media “influencers” Hashtag and Viral and the Prince’s aide renamed Deldini. Curiously and disappointedly, they dropped the character Buttons from the show, a standard of Cinderella for years who usually adds comedy and pathos to the show. This places more weight on the shoulders of the Dame, Uglies, and Deldini with mixed results. For some reason, Deldini, originally written as a Del Boy character with lots of reference to Only Fools and Horses, retains only a few catchphrases like “plonker”, “lovely jubbly” and “cushty” but drops most of the other successful business from last years show including the brilliant bar fall.

Lucy Alston and Fergie Fraser as Hastag and Viral bring a fresh modern infectious energy to the Ugly Sisters full of self-confidence and social media references which will appeal to the younger audiences and their parents frustrated by the kids overuse of mobile technology and social! The comedy is broad and a little one level with the sisters being mirrors of each other in character and dress, but they are engaging and well-delivered characterisations including a good energetic Ball Cabaret routine.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

Cinderella is a classic children’s pantomime tale that has delighted audiences for decades. It is the epitome of the Pantomime genre with a comic Buttons, an earnest Dandini distributing invitations, the magic of the transformation into a ball gown and Shetland ponies pulling a carriage. You meddle with the stock characterisations as your peril which was obviously the starting point for the writer Leo Butler and Director Eva Sampson at Stratford East as they junked these elements and bodily reset the title in East Egypt. And why not? Well, how does setting it there, thousands of years ago, bring it into the modern day? Like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella playing with the audiences’ expectations is a great risk so you need to be very confident that your adaption will enthral and excite young families and offer the same shared joy as the original.

Their diverse audience certainly seemed to be up for it from the start and although some audience members seemed to be laughing when there was not even an obvious gag, the production swept us along in a brilliantly funny, inventive and wholly satisfying show. It quickly dispensed with prior expectations and showed a real sense of the essence of pantomime and a strong storytelling narrative which supported the heart-felt thoughts of believing in yourself with an underlying pollical message.

Its that time of year again, OH YES IT IS! Pocket Size Theatre's 2022 Pantomime Preview

This year the Pantomime headlines will be grabbed by the two star-led, high-production value shows in London at the London Palladium and the Duke of York but there are plenty of other very good shows all-round the United Kingdom offering a very good Christmas family trip to the theatre. The Pantomime website ITS BEHIND YOU DOT COM - The Magic of Pantomime diary lists around 250 professional pantomimes around the country this year, so there is certain to be a show near you. The Charity UK Pantomime Association seeks to celebrate the very best of Pantomime with its Awards and past winners are one guide to which shows to book for.

The London Palladium makes a welcome return to proper storytelling pantomime this year after two variety-style productions with Jack and The Beanstalk and we can expect some stage magic for the climactic end of Act 1 climbing the beanstalk scene. However, it is the addition of Alexandra Burke (2021 Best Mythical Being Pantomime award winner) and Dawn French (2019 Best Villain Nominee ) that really catches the eye. They join the familiar line up including Julian Clary (Best Principal boy 2017 winner) so expect some outrageous adult double entendre, Paul Zerdin and Nigel Havers. These spectaculars have won, Best Special Effects 2017 & 2018, Best Musical achievement & Best staging 2017, Best leading man, Villain, Script, and Best Pantomime in 2018 and Best Ensemble & Best Costumes in 2020.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Theatre Royal Bath

While many Pantomimes close around New Year’s Day each year, the Theatre Royal Bath’s production usually runs until the following weekend and this year it’s Cinderella closes on the 9th of January. It’s a great time to visit Bath as the streets are quieter and you can appreciate the wonderful architecture of this lovely Georgian City and there can’t be a more wonderful setting for a traditional family pantomime than this beautiful venue. Jon Monie must love this place too as this is his 19th season in Pantomime here and with over 1000 performances behind him, he has the experience and knowledge on how to write and deliver a very well-judged and balanced show. It clearly was enjoyed by the schools’ parties at the matinee I attended but had plenty of cheeky innuendo for the adults to enjoy (with only a joke about Strange-ways Prison overstepping the mark).

His script, in the hands of Director Hannah Sharkey with a very good ensemble cast, is an excellent combination of traditional storytelling, a fresh injection of ideas into some of the standard pantomime business and music choices with new lyrics that flow from the story. The whole production is well-staged in another UK Production set design by Charlie Camm, Jon Harris and Jason Bishop with an attractive practical village scene, a very successful transformation scene from Kitchen to Coach and a clever touch when Cinders is hidden from Charming by the Ugly Sisters. This all adds up into an excellent showcase of the skills of the cast to entertain young and old. 

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Corn Exchange, Newbury

For their last performance of 2021, the Newbury production of Cinderella had to adjust with Jordon Benjamin stepping up from an Ensemble of two into the leading role of Prince Charming as the understudy for William Beckerleg but his confident stage presence covered any uncertainty over filing the role. Indeed, the whole cast looks like they are enjoying themselves in the knowledge that the creative team behind the show have developed an imaginative and fresh take on the familiar title and perhaps that there were only four more shows until the end of the run!

The script by Clare Prested, Adam Brown (who also directs) and Amanda Wilsher is full of clever fresh ideas that breathes new life into the story and dispenses with the Buttons character. This spreads the responsibility for the comedy to the rest of the cast and they rise to the challenge wonderfully. The Dandini character is elevated to the comical Deldini borrowing heavily from Only Fools and Horses and brilliantly incorporating the famous bar scene collapse. Billy Robert’s is excellent in the role of creating the chirpy East End chappie.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

The Mayflower Southampton posters have Craig Revel Horwood and Debbie McGee as the headliners, but it is Richard Cadell as Buttons with his co-star Sooty that makes this show stand out from the crowd this Christmas with a high energy magical performance that supports the narrative but equally entertains with some spectacular illusions and charming comedy with his puppets. Horwood as the aloof villainess stepmother Baroness Demonica and McGee as the Fairy Godmother look the part as they elegantly sashay on and off but only occasionally get a chance to take centre stage. Indeed, when they finally get to look for Cinderella to try on the slipper it is Sooty’s magic rather than the Fairy Godmother that locates her.

The Mayflower stage is wide and deep with plenty of wing space, and this enables the production to include a lot of large props to support the cast. Horwood arrives on a golf buggy, Cadell arrives on a motorbike in a brilliant illusion, Sooty enters on a mini camper van and Cinderella departs for the Ball on a flying coach and horses over the audience (although unusually the lights cues were late and revealed the lifting mechanism as it took off). Cadell also includes a delightfully cute illusion where cast members appear under cloths from an apparently empty cubicle and a spectacular escape from a hanging box chopped up by a set of chain saws. He completes his magic performances with a comedy routine with Sooty under three buckets bringing a fresh twist to the ball and cups street magic. They are all shoehorned into the narrative but are executed with such skill and energy that we simply sit back and enjoy the presentation. 

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent

My last visit to the Regent Stoke on Trent was in 2006 to see Jonathan Wilkes in pantomime so it was with pleasure and anticipation that we returned to see him in Cinderella this December. In the intervening fifteen years, he has developed a strong comedy partnership with Christian Patterson (who also directs this show) and a powerful connection with the Stoke on Trent audience even though he appears to be a Port Vale FC fan. That rapport is visible from his first appearance from a spurious spacecraft cut out and together they pack plenty of jokes and a lot of adult innuendo into the first thirty minutes. It is a bit of a whirlwind with the rest of the cast very much in subsidiary roles. 

Alan McHugh’s 2021 scripts which underpin most of the Crossroads shows set up some standard pantomime business with a music lip-sync routine, twelve days of Christmas pandemonium and the Suzie Shaw tongue twister. For the first time audience member, these routines generate lots of laughs although they have little to do with the narrative and are barely adapted to each title. Patterson has clearly added to the script some of the best lines that land with the audience and each is delightfully pointed and reacted to by Wilkes and Patterson as Buttons and the Dame (this year). They perform the Balloon ballet at the Ball, but you will see better versions elsewhere like in Reading’s Cinderella with Justin Fletcher and Paul Morse. The DVD storytelling routine is executed well with plenty of innuendoes! They pack plenty of effort into a sing-off routine to replace the traditional song sheet and get a strong response from the audience.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend-on-Sea

Brian Conley is one of the modern Kings of Pantomime and from his first appearance he effortlessly had a young audience eating out of his hands whatever he did. With a little bit of effort on some fresher material, he would have had them rolling in the aisles too. He engages with the audience well, although the show is all about him, “I am on the poster” he repeatedly tells us and indeed none of the rest of the cast gets any subsidiary billing at all. He also co-wrote the script with the legendary master of Pantomime Michael Harrison who runs the Production Company Crossroads, so they certainly know what works. Conley’s material has worked for years, and he delivers it professionally but in a mechanical way perhaps holding back early in the run. The Masked Singer gag was a good idea underdeveloped, Dangerous Buttons fell flat, and the song on the log wall with the Prince and Cinders upset the balance of the scene where Cinders and Prince first meet.

There is in fact a very good supporting cast but the interaction between them under Kathryn Rooney’s direction does not create the feel of an ensemble cast working together to deliver the show. This is particularly true of the two excellent Ugly Sisters the tall Ben Stock and the shorter Neal Wright. They have little of their own business and are underused although they do get to do a rather lame electrocution sketch with Conley. Stock’s reactions to whatever is happening are wonderful and they have some marvellous costumes including too stunning Chandelier dresses for the Ball. They deserved more stage time to truly demonstrate their statement “aren’t we gorgeous”!

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Richmond Theatre

Strictly Come Dancing fans are spoilt for choice this Christmas with Craig Revel Horwood in Southampton’s pantomime, Shirley Ballas at the Tunbridge Wells’ pantomime and Anton Du Beke at Richmond. It has been a very good few months for Du Beke as he settled so well into the role of Strictly Judge and now makes his Pantomime debut as Buttons in Cinderella. Inevitably the production focuses on telling the familiar story through dance and I doubt whether you will see a finer, prettier, or more charming version of Cinderella this Christmas anywhere in the country.

His natural easy charm, twinkling eyes and smooth elegant moves easily win over the audience and when he stumbles on the occasional line it just adds to his appeal. He performs with effortless gentle ease so that even his careful slow exits generate delightful Ah’s and Oh’s from an admiring audience. When he engages with traditional pantomime business his natural style brings a freshness to the routines. As a result, the Alexa music clips routine which has become a staple of pantomime in recent years is beautifully executed with each clip given an elegant dance move as the Ugly Sisters feed him the cues. Then Buttons cheering up Cinders routine is also freshened up as it becomes a dance routine around “You to me are everything”. Of course, at the Ball Du Beke, gets to put on his top hat and tails for some fancy footwork. 

REVIEW: Cinderella, streaming in cinemas

Peter Duncan last year boldly led the way with his streamed Pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, filmed largely in his back garden and created an entertaining film that brought joy and laughter into family homes that Christmas with an energetic and enthusiastic cast. This year he has returned with a bigger budget, location shooting and higher production values in his version of Cinderella for streamed and theatrical cinema release. Some of the comedy and spontaneity has been lost in the process but nevertheless, the result is a polished and good-looking version of this classic Pantomime story.

Written and directed by Peter Duncan a much-loved Children’s entertainer from his days on Blue Peter in the eighties and period as Chief Scout as well as directing many pantomimes on stage. More recently he was in The Dame on stage written by his daughter Katie so there was plenty of experience to draw on in creating this film version. They stick to the traditional story with Baron Hardup, two ugly stepdaughters, Buttons in love with Cinders and the standard pumpkin transformation scene and slipper trying on scene. The interiors of Hardup Hall look wonderful (set & props design by Lyndon Harrison), capturing the spirit of the stage version on sets which looked like they had painted the interior of his own London house! The arrival at the Palace in horse and carriage was given the full film treatment that could not be done on stage. Interestingly the Ballroom scene is moved to the woodlands for an outdoor festival which gives it a magical feel although makes it look more like Into the Woods or Alice in Wonderland especially with the circus acts and young ensemble dressed as cute animals.

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Wilde Theatre in South Hill Park

The pantomime season has started, and my first visit is to perhaps the most popular and traditional title of Cinderella at the small intimate Wilde Theatre in South Hill Park. Joyce Branagh’s script gives the familiar story a very fresh modern feel by setting it in HardUp Hotel run by Buttons and Cinders, although with the junior ensemble dressed as geriatrics with Zimmer frames, it looks more like an upmarket care home. Director Adam Stafford takes this starting point and integrates the Junior Ensemble into each scene to add depth to the small cast and create some of the best comedy moments of the show.

Victoria Spearing’s fourteenth pantomime set design once again sets new standards in creativity and innovation with a wonderful three truck set for the Hotel Reception which is practical and attractive and transforms into a beautifully conceived external gypsy caravan cafe wood scene that doubles up for the Finale walk down. In between it felt like what was left of the budget was sparingly used in the slosh scene and the ballroom scene which failed to match up to the quality of the opening scenes and the transformation scene was rather pedestrian. Alan Valentine’s colourful lighting adds to the pretty pictures created. 

COMING HOME: Lauren Byrne, currently in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella at the Gillian Lynne Theatre

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s journey to open Cinderella at the Gillian Lynne Theatre has probably been one of the most documented and talked-about stories in relation to the reopening of theatres. This new retelling of the classic fairytale opened on the 25th June 2021 with an opening night of the 20th July, this has been changed due to performances being suspended because of a COVID related case. With music by Lloyd Webber Himself, lyrics by David Zippel and a book by Emerald Fennell, the show is one of the handful of new musicals opening theatre again after the closure of theatres because of the pandemic. 

Lauren Byrne is appearing in the shows ensemble and is also covering the title role. Making her West End debut in the musical, she was previously playing the role of Jane Seymour in the UK Touring production of Six the Musical. Her other credits include Swing and cover Cynthia and Carole in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (UK Tour), Mabel and Dance Captain in Blondel (Union Theatre) and Understudy Rasa, Peggy, Gwen and Joyce in Sunny Afternoon (UK Tour). Lauren is the co-founder of the new training system ‘In3 Arts’, providing part-time training alongside her ex-Six cast member Harriet Watson. 

COMING HOME: Michael Afemaré, appearing in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella at the Gillian Lynne Theatre

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Michael Afemaré was due to perform in the transfer production of Evita. The show was revived in a brand new production at the Regent’s Park, Open Air Theatre in 2019 and was meant to be taking over the Barbican in the summer of 2020. But, with the closure of theatres, the production, unfortunately, didn’t go ahead. What that meant for Michael was that he had lost out on a wonderful job. But, we mustn’t focus on the negatives because the day before we met Michael, it was announced that he would be joining the original London company of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella. Having previously been in the original London cast of Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre, he is no stranger to a West End premiere! 

Over the past year, so many issues have been brought to the surface and highlighted in our industry. So many important conversations have been going on and with theatre now planning on reopening, this is the time for the change and progress we’ve been campaigning for. Michael feels incredibly passionate about the lack of representation of ethnicity within the industry, in particular artists of Indian and Asian heritage. Something interesting that he also brings up is, this isn’t just about the casts and people we see on stage, it goes way beyond that, “I am always trying to fight the fight for more equal opportunities, but these opportunities also need to exist beyond theatre casts. I would love for there to be a world where representation and diversity can be noted and appreciated in more positions of power; creative teams, directors, choreographers, casting directors - the list is endless.” 

REVIEW: Cinderella, the interactive online Pantomime by PantoLive

Pantomime is essentially a live experience and many of the Christmas streams failed to capture that audience interaction which makes a trip to the theatre to see one such a brilliant family experience or school outing. Panto Live have embraced the digital streaming technology to create a very clever and well thought out interactive experience in our homes or classrooms. It's available as a live stream until 4th April and then on-demand after that and it is definitely worth giving it a try especially with young children over the Easter holiday.

The pantomime is shot live in front of a green screen, with 3D virtual worlds, effects and backgrounds generated in Unreal Engine, a world-building tool used in video games and TV shows such as Fortnite. This gives each scene depth and a magical feel with moving elements, special effects, and lighting sources. It looks very good with only occasional “halo” effects around the characters in front of the images. 

REVIEW: Cinderella at the Turbine Theatre

Pantomime at this time of year is usually a family affair but there has always existed an adult version which targets a narrower audience in which there are no boundaries. Jim Davison toured often with Sinderella and Boobs in the Wood and versions are still available online but this version from Paul Taylor Mills at the Turbine Theatre definitely does not start from the same outlook as those nineties shows. Instead his Cinderella is a 2020 socially distanced romp that soon lives up to its billing of "not for the faint-hearted". It is definitely for an 18 plus audience and you soon lose count of the use of the "F-word"s, repeated often for cheap laughs from the Battersea audience. 

The pedigree of the show bodes well. Taylor-Mills has had some creative success since he opened the tiny Turbine Theatre next to the redeveloping Battersea Power station. Jodie Prenger who co-wrote the show with Neil Hurst, found fame on the TV Talent show "I'd do anything" and has established herself as a Leading Lady in Oliver!, Annie, Spamalot and most recently in a revival of A Taste of Honey. Director Lizzie Connolly met her star of this show, Rufus Hound who plays Buttons in the West End production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrel. The cast is restricted by the rule of six so alongside Hound are a hard-working talent cast of five.

REVIEW: Cinderella at KidZania (Online)

KidZania is a scaled city replica of real life for children from 4-14 years, designed to empower and inspire, located in West London (W12) which of course was closed when London went into Tier 4 on 16th December. However, they were bold enough to capture a version of Cinderella earlier this year so can offer the kids a glimpse of what they are missing. The production is filmed inside the building using the street scenes as a background for the Village, the ballroom and forest and a traditional stage cloth to set the Hard Up Hall kitchen. It works extremely well giving the show a realistic feel with depth of scene and acting as a promotion for the venue.

Maybe because it is targeted at the same 4 to 14-year-olds with a low attention span in a multimedia world, the show is kept short to just forty-five minutes and they focus on the music rather than the traditional pantomime business and jokes. We only get a handful of the old gags (including a good Weakest Link parody) which are slipped into the storytelling that speeds along until the custard pies provide a weak finish. There ought to be a warning message to the under fourteens "to not try this at home" when Cinderella gets shut in a fridge as opposed to the usual dungeon or cupboard. The call-outs to the audience of course go unanswered which feels flat and they don't acknowledge the silence but pretend there is a response. 

The Best Onstage Quick Changes in Musical Theatre!

I am an absolute sucker for a quick change and an onstage quick change, I am all for! The little theatre kid in me absolutely LIVES for these in musicals because that's what I used to pretend to do in my bedroom (just me...?). The designers on these shows are incredible and do not get enough credit in general but certainly don't get the credit they deserve for these cool and innovative changes on stage! Take a look at our list and tweet us ones we've missed! 

Mean Girls | Cady Hearon in Revenge Party

Heathers | Heather Duke in Never Shut up Again