I’ve just had an excellent night out at the Cinderella pantomime at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre. Did you say, “Oh no you haven’t” Oh yes I did!and I’ll tell you just why it was so good.

The big names in the panto are Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson of Australian soap Neightbours) and the Krankies. Now I know as well as you do that the Krankies are not by any stretch of the imagination cool. Also they’ve been around for donkey’s years, so would they be any good? They were absolutely fantastic, in fact the night definitely belonged to Janette Krankie. I was amazed at what she got up to at the age of sixty two. I don’t want to spoil the fun and give anything away so I’ll just say that the Krankies deliver a lot of the kind of thing you’d expect, and they do it as only they can, but Janette has some surprises which delighted the audience. There is an innate funniness about Janette that you can’t help laughing at.

Much comedy is drawn out of the height – or lack of it – of Janette Krankie, and the Ugly Sisters Trinny and Susannah (admirably hammed up by Ben Stock and Nathan Kiley) tower over her in their garish costumes and over-the-top make-up. Prince Charming is also very tall, in fact I do wonder if some of the casting was done by height!

As you expect with a pantomime, among the older jokes are some very topical references with many figures in the recent news being figures of fun. There’s even an appearance from Churchill, the Bulldog from the insurance ads “Oh yes!”

Now for a couple of minor niggles. You know the expression, It’s all done with smoke and mirrors? Well there were no mirrors but there certainly was a lot of smoke. From our seats in the stalls the stage was frequently obscured by the smoke or dry ice rolling out over the audience, and many characters delivered their first lines enveloped in a cloud of fog.

The music was expertly provided by David Lane and his musicians, but at times overpowered the singing. Poor old Prince Charming could hardly be heard, and Fairy Godmother Niki Evans at times had to struggle to compete with the accompaniment even with her strong voice. X-Factor fans will remember Niki from the semi finals in 2007, she was the singing dinner lady, and she is a great addition in her glittering Godmother’s outfit.

That’s the end of the niggles!

Niki Evans has lots of flying, and it was lovely when she first took flight, as the boy sitting next to us exclaimed, “Wow!” It’s easy to let adult cynicism overshadow the magic of pantos, which is just what I’m about to do, because just occasionally as Niki hung in the air the safety harness hidden below her voluminous costume hunched her dress up at the shoulders, giving her a passing resemblance to Julie Walter’s Mrs Overall.

There’s also Pegasus the flying horse to delight the kids with his aerobatics, which make a great finale to the act one. I suspect that Cinderalla’s left eyebrow may have become accidentally attached to one of the flight lines as it certainly did a bit of flying of its own. If you’re lucky enough to see the show do keep an eye out for Danielle York’s lopsided expressions, with one eyebrow up and one down, although the does play the part with the required sweetness and sings well.

The costumes were fantastic, especially the sparkling ball gowns, and the ensemble sing and dance very well, notably the cute kids who provide the aaah! factor.

I can’t finish without mentioning Stefan Dennis who relishes the boos and hisses he earns with his malevolent Dandini. Personally, I’d advise Cinderalla to forget about the Prince and run off with Dandini, who was better looking with the added interest of being a twinkly eyed villain!

summary
To sum up I’ll borrow a phrase from wee Jimmy Krankie, because Cinderalla at the Wolverhampton Grand was fan-dabby-double-dozie! Cinderella runs until January 31st 2010.

Reviewer Julie Hill
Reviewed at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre