Press Invite
Nothing says Christmas is almost here quite like the pantomime arriving at Bournemouth Pavilion, and this year was no different as Cinderella arrived over the weekend, bringing with it a whole load of laughs from the whole audience! We were very kindly gifted our tickets, and invited along to the pre-show press party, which as always was a lot of fun. Unfortunately parking was particularly tricky (make sure you leave yourselves plenty of time so you don’t miss the start) so we didn’t have much time before we needed to head back to the main auditorium for the show to begin.
Considering it was opening weekend, the cast were fabulous and the only small blip made for a very amusing anecdote when one of the Ugly Sister’s wigs fell off by accident and rolled into the orchestra area – it was hilarious and very well handled by all involved! The storyline is, of course, one we all know by heart, with plenty of the panto must-loved scenes thrown in for good measure and plenty of raunchy lines for the adults, which go right over the kids’ heads luckily!
Stand out acts for me were the lovely Melanie Waters, who we all know and love from Gavin and Stacey, as Gwen, and the incredible Noel Brodie, back again this time as the adorably lovestruck best friend of Cinderella, Buttons. If I am being super critical, I would say that the first act was a touch too long, especially for a matinee audience with so many young children and toddlers (there was lots of up and down as kids needed the loo), however I appreciate that this has been worked out based on a suitable break in the action on stage and can’t be helped.
It was brilliant for a few popular songs to be included in the show, including hits from Wicked and K-POP Demon Hunters. My youngest absolutely loved the song used when the children went up on stage, which I am not even going to pretend I am cool enough to remember or know the words to (he also loved that one of the children on stage happened to be a YouTuber, as it is his current dream job). In terms of the ‘right’ age for children to watch the show, I didn’t find any of it particularly scary, the infamous bench with the ghosts scene was definitely more funny than scary, and I took along my two teens who enjoyed themselves, so I would say it is suitable for the whole family, with something for everyone.
Something I missed a little this time was much reference to the local area, which I feel there was more of in previous years, but this was only a minor grumble, and didn’t impact the hilarity of the show. I think there was the right mix of humour, dance numbers and classic fairytale – a fun activity to mark the festive season! Cinderella plays until 4th January, with matinee and evening performances, and tickets can be purchased in advance on the Pavilion website.
We were invited along to the pantomime for the purpose of review, however all words are my own.
