Surrey

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1199" height="1200" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE.jpg" alt="Jenny Gayner as the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella Pantomime." class="wp-image-43901" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE.jpg 1199w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-800x800.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-400x400.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-768x769.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-525x525.jpg 525w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-500x500.jpg 500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/The-Fairy-Godmother-Jenny-Gayner-SQUARE-1100x1100.jpg 1100w" sizes="(max-width: 1199px) 100vw, 1199px" /></figure>



Cinderella has all the glitz and glamour you&#8217;d expect from a huge scale show, without losing the old-style charm and traditions of a good old-fashioned pantomime. It&#8217;s fun, it&#8217;s fabulous and it&#8217;s full of laughs. 



As pantos go, it’s probably the best known and most popular in the world, so you know the drill. A rags-to-riches tale of a sweet girl, bullied by her ugly step-sisters, meets handsome boy, then with the help of her Fairy Godmother she gets the guy and lives happily ever after. And the Woking production doesn&#8217;t deviate from this storyline &#8211; although it almost takes second billing to real star of the show, Brian Conley, who plays Cinderella&#8217;s best friend Buttons. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons-1000x667.jpg" alt="Brian Conley as Buttons in Cinderella pantomime, Woking Surrey" class="wp-image-43422" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons-788x525.jpg 788w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/11/Panto-NVT-Brian-Conley-as-Buttons.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /><figcaption>Funny man Brian Conley keeps the laughs coming.</figcaption></figure>



The show is dominated by Conley &#8211; hugely popular in the Nineties as a comedian and telly presenter and more recently as a star in the West End &#8211; but then, he&#8217;s the ultimate showman, and also one of the writers (alongside the talented Michael Harrison, director of Jack and the Beanstalk at the London Palladium). &#8220;I&#8217;m on the poster,&#8221; Conley says (more than once!).



He&#8217;s hilariously funny! And with a career in show business that spans four decades he&#8217;s a supreme pro &#8211; engaging naturally with the audience, ad-libbing to his heart&#8217;s content and entertaining in a genuine and loveable way. A mixture of modern jokes &#8211; Harry and Megan, Liz Truss and Prince Andrew all feature &#8211; with references to Tic Tok and Frozen for the younger members of the audiences, plus a bit of toilet humour, and then quite a lot more toilet humour. Oh yes, kids do love a poo joke or 20.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1055" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot.jpg" alt="Brian Conley and Jenny Gayner in Cinderella." class="wp-image-43899" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot-800x563.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot-1000x703.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot-400x281.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot-768x540.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Brian-and-Jenny-production-shot-746x525.jpg 746w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Brian Conley and Jenny Gayner in Cinderella.</figcaption></figure>



Safe to say it rollicks along at a happy pace with a few naughty jokes thrown in for the adults and all generations laughing continuously throughout the show.



The role of Cinderella is played by Sarah Vaughan and she is incredibly suited to the role, instantly delightful with some lovely vocals. It&#8217;s not the first time she&#8217;s played Cinders to Conleys&#8217; Buttons, and the pair have a natural connection on stage. Her prince is Samuel Wilson-Freeman &#8211; who bears more than a passing resemblance to King Charles back when he was still a young prince. He belts out a fine tune or two, including a fine parody of Bryan Adam&#8217;s (Everything I Do) I Do It for You and later, Elton John&#8217;s I&#8217;m Still Standing.



There&#8217;s a fabulous and frenzied scene where Buttons and Prince Charming are competing for the affections of Cinderella &#8211; well choreographed, perfectly timed and chaotically funny.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1024" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters.jpg" alt="Ben Stock and Neal Wright as Tess and Claudia, Cinderella's ugly step-sisters, in pantomime." class="wp-image-43898" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters-800x546.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters-1000x683.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters-400x273.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters-768x524.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/surrey/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2022/12/Ben-and-Neal-Ugly-Step-Sisters-769x525.jpg 769w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Ben Stock and Neal Wright as Tess and Claudia, Cinderella&#8217;s ugly step-sisters.</figcaption></figure>



The Uglies &#8211; aka Tess and Claudia &#8211; are played with comic excellence by tall Ben Stock and shorter Neal Wright. &#8220;Aren&#8217;t we gorgeous,&#8221; they repeatedly chime appearing in zany outfits that get more outlandish as the show goes on. My only complaint? They&#8217;re perhaps underused as the panto baddies.



For me, a shining light (quite literally) was Jenny Gayner as the Fairy Godmother. She opens the show floating onto the stage, and throughout the show is sweet, charismatic, endearing and funny &#8211; all at the right times. At one point I thought perhaps she might find love with Buttons, but alas it wasn&#8217;t to be.



Magical moments include when Cinderella appears in a sparkling carriage drawn by pure white Shetland ponies, and her zingy and clever transformation from maid to glamour-girl for the ball. A special shoutout must go to the set designers for a creating beautiful and enchanting sets, and to the ensemble cast, too, for dancing &#8211; particularly at the Royal Wedding &#8211; that was entirely en pointe.



There&#8217;s audience participation, too, and last night Conley was dangerously close to being upstaged when after drafting in help from Quentin, a dad in the front row, to sing a tune &#8211; Quentin belted out his lines, improvising a one or two of his own. The audience was in stitches.



And later too, when the obligatory kids are called onto to the stage for a post-show chat &#8211; incredibly cute Mollie, just four years old, won the hearts of the entire audience, and had us in turn laughing and then crying with her innocent and sweet-natured responses to Conley&#8217;s questions and banter. 



She&#8217;ll remember this forever, Conley tells us as he delivers her back to mum, waiting in the wings. &#8220;That&#8217;s the true joy of panto right there &#8211; making magical memories for little people.&#8221; 



And he&#8217;s right, of course. Panto is pure escapism and joy&#8230; perhaps with one or two naughty jokes along the way. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-muddy-verdict">THE MUDDY VERDICT</h2>



Good for:&nbsp;Families! There’s plenty here to entertain littlies and adults and the reworked pop hits get you singing and swaying. This is feel-good festivity at its best.



Not for:&nbsp;Tinies who won’t last the 2+ hour runtime.



‘Cinderella’ is at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, from Fri 2 until Sat 31 Dec. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/cinderella/new-victoria-theatre/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book your tickets here.</a>

Review: Cinderella at New Victoria Theatre, Woking

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