Since the age of 4, I have visited Richmond Theatre's pantomimes every single year and for the first time last year I visited Wimbledon Theatre's panto as well. This year I decided to change things up and I visited the London Palladium's panto of Cinderella. This is the best panto I have ever seen, I have truly never seen anything like it. It has mesmerising special effects and the most famous cast I have ever seen in one show, it puts on the panto of all panto's. Now that I've seen this, I don't think I can ever go back to one of Richmond's panto's. The show is just under three hours long, but the time flies by. There have been shows much shorter than this which have felt like an eternity. I actually hadn't even realised how long I'd been watching the show, every minute was a joy. The show is absolutely hilarious, I laughed my socks off! It's the funniest show I've seen since I saw Guys and Dolls with Rebel Wilson in July. The music is great and I have heard (don't quote me on this) that the majority of the music was written especially for the show. The costumes are fantastic and are most likely the best I have ever seen for a show. Specifically, Julian Clary's costumes were stunning! The sets were fairly simple, but worked well. I also thought the choreography was done well. Onto the subject everyone who sees the show is eager to see, the cast. Paul O'Grady plays the role of Baroness Hardup perfectly and brings terror to all the children in the theatre. What I liked about his performance, is that he was a really convincing female. It wasn't an overacted dame like most panto's are, it was more subtle, but still had the fun factor. I loved his ad-lib when a child started screaming and he shouted into the audience "Calpol that little brat before I do!". Julian Clary gives a stunning performance as Dandini, a performance which is the best pantomime performance I have ever seen. In the production of Cinderella I saw at Richmond last year, I found Dandini to be really annoying, but the character certainly wasn't annoying when played by Julian Clary. He is absolutely hilarious and steals the stage whenever he appears. I watched Amanda Holden a long time ago on Britain's Got Talent when I was younger, so it was great to see her live onstage in the role of The Fairy Godmother. I was surprised to find out she has a very good singing voice. Lee Mead and Natasha J. Barnes make an astounding pair as Prince Charming and Cinderella. They have good chemistry and both have lovely singing voices (which I wish we'd heard more of). Funnily enough, out of all the 'stars' in this show, I was most excited to see Natasha performing as I'd heard a lot about her performance in Funny Girl. Paul Zerdin was absolutely brilliant as Buttons and I adored his puppet Sam. Paul is clearly extremely talented and is a joy to watch. Last but not least, Nigel Havers as Lord Chamberlin was a lot funnier than I expected. The running gag of him wanting to be in scenes never tires and got funnier and funnier throughout. All of the above cast members are phenomenal, however I was not keen on the performances of Steve Delaney who played the character Count Arthur Strong playing Baron Hardup and Suzie Chard and Wendy Somerville as Verruca and Hernia. Steve Delaney/Count Arthur Strong/Baron Hardup was extremely awkward to watch and he just didn't fit in with the rest of the show whatsoever. This character may be funny elsewhere, but this was not the place for Count Arthur Strong. Suzie Chard and Wendy Somerville clearly did their best, but became heavily overshadowed and again felt out of place. I think casting 'names' in these roles would've worked better.
The featured star of Cinderella is, drum roll please... JULIAN CLARY!
This was a really tough decision to make between Julian Clary and Paul Zerdin, but in the end I decided to go with Julian. He was unbelievably funny, I would've even been satisfied if the whole show was just Julian. He was the glue that held the show together.
Now for my final verdict on Cinderella. I give Cinderella...
I give this rating because this is the best pantomime of all time, with everything needed to make the perfect panto. I cannot wait for the Palladium's next panto of Dick Whittington, it has a lot to live up to!
Agree with my rating? Think it should have got a lower rating? If so comment below.
Join me next time when I will be reviewing Million Dollar Quartet.
Thanks for reading!
-The Reviewer
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