Cinderella is Cheltenham’s latest venture on the seasonal pantomime. With a change in style, the Everyman is putting on something with the bombast and production values more akin to a West-End show than previous years, though with familiar factors like Tweedy the Clown and the odd jibe at Stroud to maintain the legacy to the location and previous years.

Tweedy as ever remains the core appeal of the panto. He’s been a staple in Cheltenham pantomime for several years now and his material remains entertaining for all. There’s a mixture of simple slapstick with his more elaborate circus training, alongside the easy rapport he builds with children and the audience at large.

The biggest hurdle for any pantomime is the earnest and saccharine plot at its centre. The purpose of this is to provide clear and easily understandable stakes to engage young children, but it can also mean subjecting adults and older siblings to extended sequences of banal childish drama in time that could be better spent with pratfalls, foam pies and slightly inappropriate gags. Thankfully, Cinderella throws a bone to the more knowing audience members. Some of these more ‘sincere’ instances are punctured by background japery (mostly courtesy of Tweedy). It’s a small thing but it shows an understanding of the difficulties of an extended show largely aimed at children but which the whole family is likely to attend. Pantos do best when they gently acknowledge the element of naffness.

The grander scale of the production largely takes the form of some extravagant and unexpected wirework, starry guest narrators and a penchant for bulking out musical numbers with a troupe of backing dancers. This is not to say that Cinderella has lost site of its aims or traditions. It’s all here: dames terrifying any man in the front rows with the threat of audience interaction, ‘He’s behind you!’ and old-fashioned clowning to get the children squealing. On top of that you’ve got a cast well-versed in the format who can lean into the audience aplenty. The romantic leads are your archetypal soft-around-the-edges protagonists for a panto (but let’s not pretend having a dense and nuanced psychology for a plot designed to string together double-entendres and slapstick would be desirable), and Courtney-Brogan Smalley as Cinderella exhibits very strong vocal range in particular.

All told, it’s a very entertaining and traditional pantomime with a bit of extra flair to embellish the silliness and scale. Tickets are already running at limited availability until January so I’d recommend moving fast to appease the littl’uns (and indulge yourself, but no one needs to know).   ★★★★☆     Fenton Coulthurst   7^th December 2019

Photo by Darren Bell