Review: Cinderella, New Victoria Theatre, Woking
Review: Cinderella, New Victoria Theatre, Woking
It’s just a super solid piece of great traditional pantomime. It’s funny, it’s engaging, it’s tree-mendous.
Once upon a time, there lived a poor gal named Cinderella. Her ugly and wicked step-sisters hated her for her beauty and goodness but she was loved by her friend Buttons. And then she met a Prince, married him and they lived happily ever after.
No one in their right mind expects much plot from a panto anyways, and New Victoria Theatre’s rendition of Cinderella does not have much of it. The fragments it did retain though – mainly a long transformation sequence and the final wedding – are a pure dream.
Brian Conley cracks Strictly jokes galore and has all the grace and charm of a stage-seasoned satyr. His age gap with Cinderella would be almost concerning if we all didn’t know how it ends. His Buttons is of course, very confident, entertaining and jolly, flirting with audience members, pulling them on stage for a Christmas duet, engaging in plenty of physical comedy and ruthlessly poking fun at the stepsisters, Claudia and Tess (Neal Wright and Ben Stock, respectively – more naïve divas than masters of disasters but gloriously flamboyant nevertheless).
Everyone else in the cast is going strong on all levels – acting, comedy, singing, and dancing. Jenny Gayner and Sarah Vaughan and Fairy Godmother and Cinderella are both lovely and sparkling with festive joy, and Samuel Wilson-Freeman as Prince Charming and Steve Leeds as Dandini complement them both in a very aesthetically pleasing manner.
On a technical side, the prowess is rather impressive, from joyous choreographies to elaborate costumes to set design with visual nods to Victorian pantomime – although Santa only knows why Cinderella wears two completely different dresses for her transformation and the ball. It snows in the auditorium and there are real ponies in the traditional piece of stage magic by the end of Act One.
It’s just a super solid piece of great traditional pantomime. It’s funny, it’s engaging, it’s tree-mendous.
