Happy New Year!!
Well it’s panto season and I’ve just been to see a local showing of Cinderella. This is what it was like.
At The Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells.
To sum up – unless you get in cheap with a bunch of scouts or guides; it’s not one I would highly recommend to be honest.
Three cast members were really good: Barney Harwood (from CBBC) as Buttons, Laura Clements as Cinderella, and the tall ugly sister. When there is such a wealth of talent amongst British performers, the rest of the cast were shamefully dismal. I suppose watsit from Hollyoaks did his job well was Prince Charming, but Dandini and Cinderella’s father had no stage presence what-so-ever and the smaller ugly sister simply couldn’t carry off the humour required when cross dressing. The Fairy Godmother was fine, but was consistantly a couple of seconds too late after the bang and puff of smoke, so the magic was lost.
The pantomime itself was well written – there were no dull and lengthy scenes when two irrelivant characters try and paint a wall, completely irrelivantly to the plot! Of course there were bits that diverted from the Cinderella story, but they were funny enough for it not to matter. It also lasted three hours – so I suppose in that respect you get your money’s worth.
And I suppose I can’t complain too much as the kids had a wonderful time and thought it was brilliant. That’s all that matters really isn’t it. The charisma of Buttons and the talent of Cinderella outshone everything else. Another highlight; just before the interval; two real-life white horses come on stage to pull the carriage. Lovely!
