Pantomime
Cinderella
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
three stars
Big bobby-dazzler song’n’dance numbers - and plenty of them. Costumes that zap the eyes with clashing colour ways and loads of bling - because baddies like the scheming Baroness Hibernia have no taste!
Special effects that are truly special - grown-ups in the audience will be as amazed as the wildly excited tinies when Cinderella is magically transported to the royal ball. And no - I’m not about to clype and spoil one of the highlights in a panto that continually swithers between time-honoured story-telling and time-worn variety show… This disjointed mix isn’t entirely family-friendly, and sadly, it elbows the romantic narrative to one side to make room for yet more mayhem from the headlining talents. Well, some of them anyway.
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It’s a given that Edinburgh’s panto regulars take gleeful pleasure in the well-established combo of Allan Stewart, Grant Stott and Jordan Young. Old jokes are greeted like familiar pals, which is fine and dandy for those of a certain age. But youngsters don’t get the yesteryear references in the material, while some of the rudery is a nudge-and-a-wink too far. When, however, the comedy has a fresh energy to it - the dance-off sequence with its TikTok influences is spot on - this panto gets into its stride.
Stewart’s Faerie May is indefatigable, holding sway throughout while Grant Stott is a pure growly treat as Baroness Hibernia Fortuna. Jordan Young’s Buttons does ‘glaikit’ with a daftness that wins everyone over - altho’ he doesn’t get the girl…aaawww.
Once Cinders (Amber Sylvia Edwards) finishes her studies, she’ll marry the Prince (Will Callan) who sings such tunefully accomplished duets with her. What of the Fortuna Sisters? It would have been good to see Clare Gray and Gail Watson getting to do more than change costumes, but - as the action hurtles to a determined two-hour close - they, like other panto elements, are side-lined en route to that essential happy ending.
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