Review: Cinderella at Liverpool Everyman ****

It’s oft been said the countdown to Christmas doesn’t really start until the Everyman Rock ‘n’ Roll panto gets underway.

Last year’s Red Riding Hood was something of a departure from the formula which has won the seasonal show legions of fans over the years, and a not altogether successful one.

While the 2023 production still feels somewhat different (it doesn’t have quite the same deliciously unpredictable sense of danger and anarchic mayhem as it once did), under James Baker’s energetic direction and eye for detail it certainly hits lots of the right notes that have made the rock ‘n’ roll panto a key part of the city’s festive celebrations.

As always, if you’re a bloke sitting on the front row be warned, you’re fair game for some unwarranted attention. On press night the short straw was drawn by a gentleman called Brian – who gamely entered into the spirit of it, after some initial bemusement at least.

Meanwhile, underused in 2022, Adam Keast – chalking up his 20th Everyman panto, and 21st Christmas show for the ‘E&P’ – is given much more stage time this season. Which is good news both for rock ‘n’ roll regulars and for the development of his newish panto partnership with Ben Welch’s cheerily suggestive, crowd-charming Dame.

Here Welch is a matchmaking Fairy Godmother with attitude (think Blind Date without the cheesy questions/answers) and Keast is (our) Graham, DFG’s apprentice who will be taking over the job when she hangs up her wand after one last match.

Above: Ben Welch as Dame Fairy Godmother and Adam Keast as Graham. Top: Grace Venus as Ellanora. Photos by Marc Brenner.

That involves manipulating events so the sweet but lonely Ellanora (Grace Venus) is thrown into the path of Prince Charming (Thomas Fabian Parrish) and the pair can fall in love and live happily ever after.

So far, so Cinderella.

First-time rock ‘n’ roll panto writer Luke Barnes also gives us the requisite uncaring step-family, pumpkin coach, glass slippers and a grand ball, but that’s where the similarity with Perrault’s original ends.

Instead, Barnes subverts the traditional fairytale with an unexpected plot twist and a refreshingly different ‘happily ever after’, along with a central message about ultimately being true to yourself which everyone, however they interpret it, can get behind.

LIPA student Venus delivers an assured performance as the creative dreamer who is dismissed as ‘weird’ by her step-siblings and by Zoe West’s entertainingly geezerish step-dad Ken Ooglay, while Parrish charms as a prince who is anything but a confident, swaggering love interest ready to sweep her off her feet.

Aminita Francis returns after playing Cherry Blossom last season, this year promoted to Queen of Liverpool and bringing with her some regally powerful vocals, not least to Whitney Houston’s Queen of the Night.

Above: Thomas Fabian Parrish as Prince Charming. Photo by Marc Brenner.

There’s quite a lot of scene-setting before the story gets properly underway – truncating it just a bit would help with the lengthy first half running time, while a ‘Dolce and Gabbana’ joke becomes laboured. Oh, and without wanting to sound too bah humbug, one backdoor/exit gag is probably sufficient.

Designer Isla Shaw’s set is impressive in scale - the outline of a giant pumpkin curves around a two-storey structure upstage which houses the band on top and a trio of entrances below, although visually it feels a bit matt when it could do with being full on gloss.

After all, you can never have enough sparkle at Christmas.

But with a pounding soundtrack, led by musical director Tara Litvack and performed live by the actor-muso cast, and some bright choreography, this Cinderella-with-a-twist proves a Christmas crowd-pleaser.