Writer and director: Adam Penford
It may be cold and wet outside but there’s a warm welcome and a lot of fun to be had inside Nottingham 
Playhouse and their production of Cinderella.
This is a traditional family panto with everything you’d expect to find, based around a very funny script from Playhouse Artistic Director Adam Penford. It proves once again, if proof were needed, that you don’t need large casts, superstar names or expensive special effects to create a panto that all the family will enjoy and appreciate.
There’s no adult dance ensemble here, just a principal cast of seven supported by two teams of local youngsters. Do we miss them? Not really – in fact it’s only in the ball scene when it becomes noticeable that there’s nobody there dancing. The level of work put in by the seven actors more than compensates and the teamwork involved is clear.
Centre stage as always are the Ugly Sisters. John Elkington as Rose is a Playhouse favourite, marking here his 25th year since his first Playhouse pantomime. Alongside him this year is Tom Hopcroft, showing a degree of flexibility that you don’t often find in a panto dame (or at least not in the costume he was wearing, anyway). The pair work very well together and the nature of their roles means that they are seldom off stage, apart from changing costume from one ridiculously over-the-top number to another (designer Cleo Pettitt has done a great job here, with one or two costumes that you won’t have seen before).
Also returning for another year is Danny Hendrix as Buttons, ever smiling and bouncing around the stage in an energetic performance as he keeps things moving along at a swift pace. Jewelle Hutchinson gives us an endearing Cinderella, coy and determined, while Liam Marcellino gives us a very funny stereotypical upper-class Prince well supported by Nottingham-born Georgia-Mae Price as Dandini.
There are no vocal weak links among the entire cast – and it’s pleasing to hear as much music as we do – but standing out in the vocal stakes is Alice Redmond as both Fairy Godmother and Her Ladyship, suitably mean and evil as the stepmother alongside the usual Fairy Godmother empathy and kindness.
The sets are bright, fresh and colourful and the effects work well, with a nicely thought-out transformation scene.
Penford’s script is funny and topical with jokes for everyone and no adult humour, guaranteed to keep the whole audience entertained throughout and it includes every panto trick you could think of – the messy scene, ultraviolet, haunted forest, and one of funniest versions of If I were not upon this stage you could hope to come across. There’s even a nod back 40 years to a certain episode of Only Fools and Horses which everyone of a certain age in the audience will immediately recognise.
With a hard-working cast, a funny (and sometimes improvised) script and occasional chaos, this has everything you could want for traditional seasonal fare.
Runs until 13 January 2024
