Cinderella Review – You must go to the beach with this refreshing beachside panto | Bantu season

HThere’s a sunny panto to dispel any dreams of a white Christmas. Joe Tracini’s script is set in the seaside town of Crabbington Sands where a pastel-clad troupe dances to Amy Lee’s playful choreography. Cinderella’s sisters, the macabre duo Lou and Love (the toilet flush effect), could have come straight out of an outrageously saucy postcard. Designer Kirsteen Wythe brings them great outfits that are even better seen with UV protection. They include a beach ball dress, a bucket and shovel hat, fairground ride dresses, and a wig apparently woven with fishing line.

Cinderella’s parents ran a local hotel that has closed since she lost them, and she longs for new adventures, a longing expressed in the opening exposition of an unwritten novel by Natasha Bedingfield. In the lead role, Georgia May Foote brings a big-sister vibe to her teamwork with the young audience, which also underscores how she sees the hopelessly loyal Cinders Buttons (Tracini) as a brother. But she’s written to be a bit frivolous, and there’s no spark to her romance with the wannabe rock star prince (Danny Hatchard, who oscillates between clown and proper gentleman).

This is a panto that proves to be as commercial as a turkey with all the trimmings. There’s a lot to enjoy, mainly Owen Evans and Kenny Moore as the evil stepsisters (with no stepmother in sight), but also some jokes that are so bad they’re great, a “Shoe Must Go On” game show featuring the legendary Slippers and a chorus of monks singing Ring My Bell. Tracini is a treat in this final routine, where he is left dangling from a rope as the “air monk.” As he rushes through the stalls he is attacked by children.

Hannah Jane Fox introduces us to a pink-haired fairy godmother who loses her magic touch, so that her couplets fail to find a closing rhyme. It’s a lovely conceit in a script that nonetheless skimps on panto chestnuts for adults dabbling in youthful vernacular (“So cringe,” mutters an unimpressed schoolboy in the back row on one such occasion).

If I had one wish for that fairy godmother, it would be for Jeevan Braich’s Dandini to get more limelight. Braich, a breakout sensation from Starlight Express who has a wonderfully rich sound, is given a big number after the interval that immediately raises the temperature. The plot peters out in the second half, which needs a major set piece, and the story is hastily wrapped up like a last-minute Christmas present. But Andrew Linford’s bright, loud and warmly performed production leaves you not only with sore eyes and ringing ears, but with a smile, too.