Cinderella

Published Tuesday 19 December 2006 at 11:55 by Douglas McPherson

If you want them to come back for the second act, you have to send the audience off to the interval on a high. That is something the Norwich Theatre Royal achieves admirably, with one of the best pantomime horses in Pantoland. As the winged thoroughbred hauls Cinderella’s coach off the stage into a sky filled with fireworks, the effect is truly magical.

That’s not the only technical trickery in a show with a long tradition of annually outdoing itself in the SFX department. Apart from Richard Gauntlett’s Button’s springing onstage on bouncy stilts and Marilyn Cutts’ Fairy Godmother spending most of her time flying or shooting up and down through trapdoors in a puff of smoke, the second half is enlivened by a cinematic projection that takes Buttons and the Uglies (Steve Edwin and Nigel Nobes) on a frantic rickshaw ride through the streets of Norwich.

The costumes and choreography would not be out of place in the heart of London. Writer and director Gauntlett whips the show along without a spare line of dialogue and if there is little room left for interaction with the audience, the sheer spectacle ensures everyone goes home thoroughly entertained.