Cinderella

Published Friday 14 December 2007 at 11:55 by Anne Broom

Bright, up-beat and enormous fun, writer and director Ben Crocker takes a new look at the traditional tale and comes up with a winner. As fresh as the newly-refurbished venue, bristling with imaginative ideas and with a huge feel-good factor, it’s good traditional material in a fresh guise.

Noel White and Steve Bennett as Trinny and Susannah enjoy a slapstick make-over extraordinaire, from depilatory to liposuction topped with liberal buckets of garishly gooey lotions. This confidently successful partnership sees Noel White especially creative, energetically revelling in ludicrous looks and cross-dressing. Endearing wannabe racehorse Devon Dumpling (Jane Bellamy and Andy McSorley) upstages everyone with some nifty hoof-work. Lucy Johnson is a warm and confident Cinderella with Lucy Barker her personable Prince Charming and Stephanie Charles a Dandini with a rich singing voice. There’s believable empathy between Cinders and Gordon Cooper’s gentle comically-lovelorn Buttons.

Ensuring a festive atmosphere, musical director/composer Paul McClure keeps the story moving on designer Becky Hawkins fairy tale sets, while snow whirls round the auditorium in an unexpectedly glittering transformation. This quality family show will undoubtedly attract huge audiences, yet facing the withdrawal of its Arts Council grant, the Northcott’s future is sadly uncertain.