Panto is a like a favourite homemade family dish. It has certain familiar and key ingredients, but if you forget one or get it in the wrong measure, then it just doesn’t taste the same and you, and the rest of the family end up being both fed, but fed up.
Bristol Hippodrome’s Cinderella is certainly tasty and although some of the ingredients are added with a heavy hand, it hits the spot leaves the audience wanting more.
Brian Conley’s Buttons handles every knockabout routine and popular reference with aplomb. He grabs the show by the scruff of its neck and drags it along. Sometimes he slips into a somewhat barking tone, but his effervescent ebullience and the ease with which he handles audience participation, patter and physicality drives proceedings. He is more of a cheesy topping at times, but it does fill you up.
Gok Wan as the Fairy Gokmother is very much within his comfort zone, effectively recreating his TV fashion makeover shows as he transforms Cinderella into a ‘Girlfriend’ fit for a Prince. He and Brian Conley have a good chemistry and the occasional, sometimes scripted, give and take is always good natured.
There is delightful cross dressing as the equally superb Ben Stock and Neal Wright absolutely nail the parts of Ugly Sisters Tess and Claudia. With plenty of fantastical costumes, local references and perfectly synchronised movements, they must be some of the best in the business. They are a fresh and tasty treat; almost a feast in themselves.
Lauren Hall’s Cinderella is pitch perfect. She sings well, dances with accomplishment and looks just right. Little girls arriving at the theatre dressed in their own princess dresses can look up and see the real thing on stage.
Scott Mobley’s Prince Charming does what it says on the tin. He looks and sounds charming and is perfectly cast, but he is after all just the seasoning and neither over nor under done.
The dancing, costumes and set design are fabulous, but without the deftness of an excellent back stage crew they are nothing and the slickness of the scenery changes and speed with which various contraptions are removed adds spice to proceedings. There is never a moment when you are waiting to be served and the action is always delivered piping hot.
The special effects team, The Twins FX, raise the level and the fantasy is made real as Cinderella is magically transported in a coach and horses over the seats of the audience at the end of Act One, leaving them hungry for the second course.
There is audience participation in abundance and one moment captured the evening perfectly as Brian Conley had fun with several children at the end of the show. One six year old who came dressed as Cinderella left the stage clutching a toy teddy on an evening that Conley said “she will never forget”. That is panto in its purest form so let’s have another great dollop of a helping.
★★★★☆ Bryan Mason 12th December 2018
