Theatre / Review
Review: Cinderella, Hippodrome
“I’ve had it with you.” “Really? I don’t remember getting that drunk.”
From the eye-poppingly beautiful sets, via some Ugly Sisters costumes that deserve their own room in the V&A, to the frankly copious fart gags, there’s plenty for the kids to enjoy in this year’s Hippodrome panto.
There are also, thanks mostly to the earthy charms of Brian Conley as Buttons, no shortage of saltier humour like the above to keep the adults interested. Conley also has great onstage chemistry with Gok Wan (yes, that’s Gok Wan), who plays the glitter-spangled, wand-waving, wish-granting Fairy Gokmother.
Neal Wright and Ben Stock as the Ugly Sisters in the Hippodrome Christmas panto
It’s all, frankly, great fun whatever your age and sense of humour. Conley, Gok and Cinderella (a beautifully ingenue performance from Lauren Hall) enjoy a scene of brilliant physical comedy together; Conley is a natural at the audience interaction, delivering dry asides and slapping our collective wrists when required; Gok just looks delighted to be there in a procession of ever more retina-searingly sparkling outfits, and he and Conley banter and bicker like an old married couple.
Ugly sisters Ben Stock and Neal Wright are suitably vain, withering and casually cruel (and chasing after every man in sight), and their technicolour, often surreal costumes vie with the frankly incredible sets for eye-candy award.
Gok Wan (Fairy Gokmother) and Lauren Hall (Cinderella)
Special mention, too, to three (spot ‘em) moments of brilliant visual trickery. One of them will have you laughing so hard you’ll miss two minutes of dialogue, the other two will have you all looking quizzically at each other until curtain down. Some OK songs too (do they have to be quite so loud, though?), though they haven’t lingered in the memory.
A big, brash, colourful spectacle, crowned by some excellent comic performances and some sets that will stay with you long after midnight. You should go to the Ball.
Cinderella continues at the Hippodrome until Sunday, January 6. For more information and to book tickets, visit www.atgtickets.com/shows/cinderella/bristol-hippodrome
Read more: Review: A Christmas Carol, Bristol Old Vic
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