CINDERELLA

Theatre Royal Windsor

★★★★★

“magic, fun, spectacle and downright silliness”

If you google ‘key ingredients of a pantomime’ you get no shortage of search results. I shan’t bore you with the list here – you probably know them all anyway – but there’s a prevalence of the superlative adjective, “great”, before the word ‘pantomime’. So, what makes a “great” pantomime? The answer doesn’t really lie on your computer screen. It is currently to be found down at Theatre Royal Windsor, as their annual, seasonal event gets under way in the form of “Cinderella”. All the essential elements are there. And some more. Incidentally – before you go – check out the relevant page on the theatre’s website and have great fun with the mouse cursor! The Fairy Dust is sprinkling before you’ve even started hovering over the booking calendar.

Theatre Royal Windsor has been staging traditional pantomimes for over eighty years. Of course, the festive tradition is older than that, evolving as it did from Italy’s sixteenth century ‘Commedia dell ‘Arte’. Originally many purists dismissed pantomime as ‘illegitimate’ theatre, but that sentiment is met with a rousing “oh no it isn’t” these days. In fact, those words – along with the booing and hissing, the ‘it’s behind you’s, the ghost gags, the gender bending, the slapstick, the double entendres and the happy endings – are often most people’s first memory of live theatre. But there is no age restriction, as this version of “Cinderella” demonstrates with its overdose of magic, fun, spectacle and downright silliness.

Organised chaos is the phrase that comes to mind, albeit set against a precise and slick backdrop of scene changes, the pinnacle of which amazes us just before interval, when Cinderella is all dressed up and ready to go to the ball. I’m saying no more. But I’ve got ahead of myself here. Let’s go back to the start. First up is the Fairy Godmother – a fiery, versatile and extremely funny Hilary O’Neil. It’s worth going for her split impression of Tess and Claudia from ‘Strictly’ routine alone. Oh, and her pastiche nods to Catherine Tate and other such comedy icons, although O’Neil has the individual flair, too, of a seasoned panto-pro. All the eight lead players share the same gift for comedy and comic timing. This year marks Kevin Cruise’s sixteenth season at Windsor and his stage craft – as Buttons – truly shows, as he comfortably leads the audience participation and somehow manages to steer the wayward ad-libs back towards some sort of semblance of a script. Michael Praed’s Baron Hard-up has an understated, deadpan sense of humour oozing out of his pores as he continually mistakes the story line for Robin Hood. Steven Blakeley and Jeffrey Harmer are a hilariously brilliant duo as the Ugly Sisters, and similarly Jay Worley, as a charming Prince Charming and Robby Khela as a dandy Dandini make another dynamic duo. But where would we be without the title character? Brogan McFarlane is a cooly endearing Cinderella whose appeal and sassiness spans the generations. She is the adults’ heartthrob and the kids’ older sister, all in one.

An ensemble of eight triple-threats are ever present, virtuosic in movement and voice. Isabella Everett’s choreography is quite beautiful, verging occasionally on the balletic. The musical numbers are mainly contemporary but with a strong leaning towards the eighties. We do wonder how most of the youngsters recognise those songs. The four-piece band are in the pit, fittingly sounding like a mini-orchestra, led by musical director and multi-instrumentalist, Kevin Oliver Jones – who frequently feels the need to shield himself, with an umbrella, from the mayhem happening on the stage above him.

Cracker jokes, old jokes and bad jokes litter the stage – along with some extremely clever puns and risqué moments (which the youngsters don’t necessarily recognise). Emma Foltran has pulled out all the stops with a simply stunning, jaw-dropping array of costume (the Ugly Sisters come off best… or worst – depending what way you look at it), which are emphasised by Sam Wright’s luscious display of lighting. You really don’t need to google the ‘key ingredients’ of pantomime. They are all here. Director Charlotte Peters has had her work cut out keeping everything together, and also keeping this wayward, anarchic cast in check.

It’s advisable to take some sort of surgical truss to this show, as the force of laughter it induces borders on dangerous. A totally bizarre, unruly, surreal and extremely funny version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ has us in stitches, almost to the point of needing stitches. And part of the beauty of panto is witnessing the performers have as much fun as us. For this is fun from start to finish. Like the stroke of midnight for Cinderella, the curtain call comes too quickly for us, but we’ve had our happy ending (no double entendres intended – honest!).

Don’t be afraid to indulge in the silliness. After all, this is a story that assumes that nobody in the whole of the nation has the exact same shoe size as anybody else. Oh, and definitely don’t be afraid to join in the singalongs, and the dance-alongs. Look out, too, for the many clever, subtle cultural references that writer Steven Blakeley has snuck into the evening. But you’ll probably be having too much fun. This is the perfect way to kick off the festive season. You’ll have a ball.

CINDERELLA

Theatre Royal Windsor

Reviewed on 27th November 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Jack Merriman

Previously reviewed at this venue:

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY | ★★★ | July 2025

DOUBTING THOMAS | ★★★½ | June 2025

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD | ★★ | March 2025

PRIDE & PREJUDICE (SORT OF) | ★★★ | February 2025

BOYS FROM THE BLACKSTUFF | ★★★★ | January 2025

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