Rating: ★★★★
Venue: King's Head Theatre, London
Cast: Danielle Steers, Maddy Erzan-Essien, Ella Vaday (Nick Collier), Harry Curley, Joseph Lukehurst, Lucia Vinyard, Robert Rees, Verity Kirk, Dame Judi Dench (voice), Miriam Margolyes (voice) and Su Pollard (voice)
Shh! For those of you up past your bedtime, there’s a naughty, adults-only show of our Christmas panto with some very special West End stars! Join Cinders as she gets a North London upgrade! King’s Head Theatre brings you Cinderella - a fabulous North London pantomime experience, in a co-production and puppetry with Little Angel Theatre, featuring sensational songs, hilarious slapstick comedy, romance and plenty of audience participation.
This production of Cinderella is far from your classic family Christmas panto. It follows the vague structure of the story we all know and love about a young girl named Ella (Maddy Erzan-Essien) treated badly by her stepsisters Peckham (Ella Vaday aka Nick Collier) and Dalston (Harry Curley), who meets a prince (Joseph Lukehurst) and falls in love. But the similarities end there.
The story gets a North London upgrade, with Cinderella’s family owning The Sadlers Wells (literal water wells), which her stepsisters are turning into a luxury spa and forcing Cinderella to work there, all while their mother (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) is away on a health retreat getting everything tucked. The Prince throws a ball to try and find the beautiful girl and then, needing a break from the Royal Life, decides to switch places with his Royal Aide, Dandini (Verity Kirk), for the day, who is already hiding his true identity as a woman. Dandini then falls in love with Buttons (Robert Rees), Ella’s best friend, forgetting her masquerade and leading to some hilarious mix up moments. Our Fairy sparkling CODmother (Lucia Vinyard) came prepared with an ocean full of fishy puns that had me hooked at first but started swimming in circles after a while.
Cinderella is packed full of classic panto gags intertwined with a timeless fairytale. On certain nights of the run, the show becomes an adults only zone, changing up the script a little to inject a lot of adult language and putting a very different spin on big royal balls!
Maddy Erzan-Essien’s Cinderella might seem charming and sweet but is hiding some killer vocals underneath. Pop and musical theatre favourites such as Espresso (Sabrina Carpenter), YMCA (Village People), and Fabulous, Baby! (Sister Act the Musical) were cleverly woven in with relevance to the story, a feat not always achieved successfully with jukebox productions, and had the audience partying. The variation in musical style allowed the whole cast to showcase their vocal range.
Danielle Steers graced the stage as the guest star for press night and gave a flawless rendition of Black and Gold by Sam Sparro, fitting in perfectly with the ocean theme. She was introduced as the evening entertainment for the Prince’s party, which has potential as a concept but I think could’ve been executed better.
The best part of the show for me was the glitteringly gorgeous set, and the beautiful and incredibly intricate costumes, especially the stepsisters’ dresses made of Sports Direct and Ikea bags, which was both spectacularly clever and outrageously funny. The moment where Cinderella gets her ballgown does not disappoint, with some very simple but super effective stage magic. Some of the gags were absolutely brilliant, others I felt crossed the line into too silly for my sense of humour, but on the whole I was thoroughly entertained and had a fabulous time watching this delightfully camp rendition of Cinderella.
You can book tickets to Cinderella (Adults Only), here.
Review by Rachel
**photo credit: Charlie Flint**
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