The newly re-opened
Fairfield Halls offered ‘Cinderella’ in its Concert Hall rather
than the usual Ashcroft Theatre. This meant that as there was no
curtain, all the scenery was back-projected, something that worked
very well.
The main draw for me in
relation to this production was Tim Vine as Buttons, and his punning
style suited the part perfectly. He also drew attention to the fact
that he was quite a bit older than the Cinderella that he was in love
with, and the ever-present staircase even in scenes in the forest.
The other two main stars were Strictly winner, Ore Oduba, and
CBeebies star, Cat Sandion. At the performance I saw, Ore did not get
off to a good start having lost his ear-mic backstage, and so much of
his early dialogue with the Prince (Croydon local, James Bisp) was
inaudible. It was not until halfway through their musical number that
a member of the ensemble dashed on with a hand-held microphone (to a
huge cheer from the auditorium). Having found his ear-mic for his
next entrance, he seemed to settle down, even if his part was mainly
limited to showing off his dancing skills. Cat was underused, coming
on for a prologue, and then having to wait until almost the end of
Act 1 to meet Cinderella in the forest, and then a short time later,
magic up the coach and dress. However, she did appear once more at
the denouement to help free Cinders from the cellar.
Playing Cinderella,
Grace Chapman, gave us an excellent Principal Girl, but with less
relying on others to ‘fight her battles’ in this post ‘#MeToo’
age. Her singing voice, mainly in duets with the Prince, was also
excellent. In this production, she had three villains to contend with
- as well as her Ugly Step-Sisters, Tess (Jason Marc-Williams) and
Claudia (Alistair Barron), she also had to deal with the brains of
the outfit, her wicked American Step-Mother, the Baroness (Katie
Cameron).
The script by Will
Brenton was excellent, including some jokes that I had never heard
before. Several old favourites were present and correct – the ghost
bench routine, ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ (which had a witty
alternative to the ‘bra made to hold three’, and in which whilst
everyone else ran about madly, Tim Vine managed to stand absolutely
still), and the Song-Sheet featuring Tim Vine’s ‘Deep’ song.
Highly recommended.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment