Hellooo! Yesterday afternoon I went over to Bradford to see Cinderella! I've only seen one panto before today (shocker, I know!) but I've liked Cinderella and I liked the look of the cast so I thought I'd give it a go!
I booked my ticket last week and went for seat G 23 in the Dress Circle as I'd not sat in that tier before. The ticket cost £23.50 as it was a Red performance (the cheapest group of performances) which also included a £3 student discount. I couldn't complain with the view at all! You could see the entire stage and the Upper Circle overhang had no impact on the view.
Now onto the show! The visual effects for the show were VERY impressive! The first part that comes to mind was Cinderella's horse and carriage! If you've seen the show you'll know what I mean but if you haven't I'll try to avoid spoilers! I imagine I was sat there with a very confused look on my face as I tried to work out how they were doing it! There were also pyrotechnics galore throughout the show and when entering the theatre, the audience was given 3D glasses which were used in a unique section of the second act! The sets were also beautiful and all in all the visuals were incredible!
I've always liked Coleen Nolan from watching her on Loose Women because she seems like a genuinely lovely person so I wanted to see what she would be like on stage starring as The Fairy Godmother. Fans of The Nolans won't be disappointed as she sang a rendition of I'm In the Mood for Dancing and had no problems singing solo! Coleen entered in a bubble resembling Glinda's in Wicked and formed a hilarious partnership throughout the show with Billy Pearce as Buttons. There were plenty of jokes for children along with gigs for the grown ups and the audience was giggling from start to finish and you could definitely tell Billy was a regular on stage. Coleen's son Shane also featured in the show as Prince Charming's sidekick, Dandini and definitely looked at home on the stage. He has a great voice and I felt like he could've been given a bit more time in the spotlight!
I loved Sarah Goggin's voice who starred as Cinderella and who wasn't phased by the head of her mop dropping off mid-scene! Cinderella's Prince Charming was played by Sam Barrett whose voice was also great and worked perfectly with Sarah's. The ensemble were incredible as always and the Sunbeam kids from the Sara Packham Theatre School were incredible!
The costumes were great although Cinderella never had her classic blue dress! The sound was spot on throughout the show apart from the end of one of the songs where Shane was speaking over the top of the music and it was hard to hear what he was saying. My only other criticism with Cinderella was that parts of the show felt a little disjointed especially following the 3D part where it jumped back to the story without mentioning that section again. In my opinion, it just needed a line from Buttons to link the two scenes together unless there was one and I just missed it!
Overall it was an afternoon full of laughter and it was great to see so many children enjoying theatre. The cast were all brilliant and the special effects were incredible and definitely not what I was expecting from a panto! It was well worth a trip!
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
