The Stage

Cinderella

Published Monday 5 January 2009 at 10:05 by Graham Williams

UK Productions’ second panto production at the Grand is not only a surefire box office winner, but a genuinely happy show and a real crowd-pleaser - indeed, I would venture to suggest that this is the most focused and effective panto to have been staged at this venue for some time.

Director Chris Jarvis - who also stars as a hugely sympathetic and likeable Buttons - is best known to mums and their little ones for his appearances on CBeebies, and he enjoys a massive fan following which is bound to set the tills ringing throughout the show’s run. There are those who bemoan the fact that pantos now tend to be dominated by TV stars, but the genre undoubtedly calls for a larger than life approach and Jarvis achieves exactly the right balance, combining smart and slick comedic delivery, pathos and rapport with the audience with plenty of topical and local references - including a well-aimed pot-shot at the “crazy one-way system” which has effectively crippled the city centre since its inception.

And speaking of larger than life performances, who better to play Baroness Hardup than Su Pollard? A fabulous trouper of the old school, she is clearly having a whale of a time in this show and her performance is a veritable tour de force. She is also adept at projecting her voice - a lesson that many other stage performers would do well to learn.

Ugly sisters Britney and Paris are played by Swansea favourites Kevin Johns and Frank Vickery, who exploit the comic potential of their characters to the full, while Cinderella herself is played by Nia Jermin, a delightfully charismatic performer who is ably supported by Craig Tyler as the handsome Prince Charming and Gavin Lee Rees as Dandini.

Last, but by no means least, we have a particularly fine Fairy Godmother in the form of Sarah Thomas, instantly recognisable for her long-running role as Glenda in Last of the Summer Wine and very effective here as Cinderella’s guardian angel.

Add to all this a pair of Shetland ponies, smart dancing from the students of the Grand Theatre School of Dance and Drama, musical direction from Griff Harries and colourful lighting design by Chris Barrett, and you have a show which should hopefully defy the credit crunch and warm the hearts of young and old alike. Panto does not come much better than this.