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I’ve just had an excellent night out at the Cinderella
pantomime at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre. Did you
say, “Oh no you haven’t!”? “Oh
yes I did!” and I’ll tell you just why it
was so good.
The big names in the panto are Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson
of Australian soap Neightbours) and the Krankies. Now
I know as well as you do that the Krankies are not by
any stretch of the imagination cool. Also they’ve
been around for donkey’s years, so would they
be any good? They were absolutely fantastic, in fact
the night definitely belonged to Janette Krankie. I
was amazed at what she got up to at the age of sixty
two. I don’t want to spoil the fun and give anything
away so I’ll just say that the Krankies deliver
a lot of the kind of thing you’d expect, and they
do it as only they can, but Janette has some surprises
which delighted the audience. There is an innate funniness
about Janette that you can’t help laughing at.
Much comedy is drawn out of the height - or lack of
it – of Janette Krankie, and the Ugly Sisters
Trinny and Susannah (admirably hammed up by Ben Stock
and Nathan Kiley) tower over her in their garish costumes
and over-the-top make-up. Prince Charming is also very
tall, in fact I do wonder if some of the casting was
done by height!
As you expect with a pantomime, among the older jokes
are some very topical references with many figures in
the recent news being figures of fun. There’s
even an appearance from Churchill, the Bulldog from
the insurance ads – “Oh yes!”
Now for a couple of minor niggles. You know the expression,
“It’s all done with smoke and mirrors”?
Well there were no mirrors but there certainly was a
lot of smoke. From our seats in the stalls the stage
was frequently obscured by the smoke or dry ice rolling
out over the audience, and many characters delivered
their first lines enveloped in a cloud of fog.
The music was expertly provided by David Lane and his
musicians, but at times overpowered the singing. Poor
old Prince Charming could hardly be heard, and Fairy
Godmother Niki Evans at times had to struggle to compete
with the accompaniment even with her strong voice. X-Factor
fans will remember Niki from the semi finals in 2007,
she was the singing dinner lady, and she is a great
addition in her glittering Godmother’s outfit.
That’s the end of the niggles!
Niki Evans has lots of flying, and it was lovely when
she first took flight, as the boy sitting next to us
exclaimed, “Wow!” It’s easy to let
adult cynicism overshadow the magic of pantos, which
is just what I’m about to do, because just occasionally
as Niki hung in the air the safety harness hidden below
her voluminous costume hunched her dress up at the shoulders,
giving her a passing resemblance to Julie Walter’s
Mrs Overall.
There’s also Pegasus the flying horse to delight
the kids with his aerobatics, which make a great finale
to the act one. I suspect that Cinderalla’s left
eyebrow may have become accidentally attached to one
of the flight lines as it certainly did a bit of flying
of its own. If you’re lucky enough to see the
show do keep an eye out for Danielle York’s lopsided
expressions, with one eyebrow up and one down, although
the does play the part with the required sweetness and
sings well.
The costumes were fantastic, especially the sparkling
ball gowns, and the ensemble sing and dance very well,
notably the cute kids who provide the “aaah!”
factor.
I can’t finish without mentioning Stefan Dennis
who relishes the boos and hisses he earns with his malevolent
Dandini. Personally, I’d advise Cinderalla to
forget about the Prince and run off with Dandini, who
was better looking with the added interest of being
a twinkly eyed villain!
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