Pity the poor audience members secretly nominated by their families for a spot of ritual humiliation on the Loughborough Town Hall stage. They’re the butt of whatever a gleeful Martin Ballard throws at them, and this year it’s the threat of a snog from himself as Halitosia and Pablo Raybould as Odouria. “Have I swallowed your chewing gum or have you got bad catarrh?,” he demands of one man.
Ballard and Raybould must be two of the roughest dames in the business, dressed at one point as handbags and so worse for wear the morning after the ball that there’s mention of shaving their tongues.
But they’re beautifully counterbalanced by the girls, in Alice Mogg’s Cinderella, Emily Latham’s fine, upstanding Prince Charming and Sally Peerless’ Dandini, played as a super-efficient PA. Charlie Guest is a bundle of energy as Buttons.
The script is alwaus good at Loughborough pantos, and this one manages to make even the story of Cinderella sound as though it’s being told for the first time. With lively dancing, a flying horse for the transformation scene and a show-stealing moment from a miniature Cinderella in the audience, the show exudes happiness from every pore.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
Content is copyright © 2012 The Stage Media Company Limited unless otherwise stated.
All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)
