Skip to main content

Review of Cinderella at Milton Keynes Theatre

For Milton Keynes Theatre's 2023 pantomime, production company Crossroads has come up with its take on the classic story of Cinderella. Often told, and a panto staple of many a theatre this year, it is required to come up with a spin or two to make it stand out from the pack. However, does it have enough fresh ideas and lavishness to be the big MK Theatre show of 2023?

Fortunately, the answer is yes, but perhaps only for one reason, heading the cast, and the only big name in the cast, is vintage treat Brian Conley, and what a treat he is. To say that the success and failure of Cinderella rests on Conley's shoulders is no understatement, as other than his presence, and the admittedly lavish looks of the set and show in general, this production is nowhere near of the quality for such a big theatre.

The personalities of the rest of the cast are by the numbers sadly, with just a couple of exceptions. The Fairy Godmother played by Lucy Conley (daughter of Brian) is excellent. Her character, in a neat This Wonderful Life twist, is known as Fairy 312 and much like Clarence in that film, is looking to gain her wings. Lucy Conley gives an excellent performance, is strong in personality, has a delightful singing voice and is captivating on stage, for a performer so young, her talent is strong. Cinderella is played with a lot of charm by Sarah Vaughn as well, and it gives one of the strongest performances in the show, especially in several lovely duets.

Elsewhere though, the performances and characters are a disappointment. James Darch's Prince Charming is rather one-dimensional, boring in fact, offering little personality to his performance. Owen Stringer's Dandina has little of the fun and enthusiasm you would expect from the role, and if anything, is played more like the prince than his manservant.

Cinderella's step-sisters, Tess and Claudia (yes, there is a loose Strictly Come Dancing theme going on in the script) are sadly disappointing. Nowhere near as bold, brash and evil as you want, and while they have a mixture of the usual outlandish costumes, many of them are a disappointment as well. Sadly also, their repetitive "ain't we gorgeous", and "suit yourself" every time they arrive on stage is delivered in a boring monotone that quickly begins to grate. Finally, and very surprisingly, the cast of characters has dispersed on Baron Hardup altogether for seemingly no reason whatsoever, other than to maybe cut the cast numbers.

All of this negativity you could be mistaken for thinking this show is not going to come recommended. However, you would be wrong, as it is time to return to the star of the show, a certain Brian Conley. He is exceptionally good, back to his heydays that many of the older members, myself included, remember. Thankfully though, we only get four, rather incongruous exclamations of "it's a puppet", the rest of the material is golden and Conley delivers it superbly. When he looks out proudly at the audience's reaction to his advert jingles, he delivers to perfection a comment about his main fanbase statistically being dead in five years. It makes us feel old, but, we are relishing every moment before our impending demise.

Beyond the superb Brian Conley, the show itself looks gorgeous, with brilliant sets, costumes, some excellent set pieces and tricks and an amazing end to act one, made better for being, in my case, seated in the third row. The script has plenty of fun with the local area, including a superb Alexa joke. Some of the selections of tunes are good, some less so, and the opening Milton Keynes one is perhaps great simply because of how bizarre it is.

Cinderella is recommended despite much of the show being slightly disappointing. simply because Conley is on fire in this. Never have I seen someone dominate a panto in such a way, and he is, without any question at all, simply brilliant. Try to grab a ticket to the Milton Keynes ball if you can.

A lavish-looking panto with a tremendous, show-stealing performance by Brian Conley.

Performance reviewed: Tuesday 13th December 2022 at the Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.

Cinderella
 runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Sunday 14th January 2023.

For further details about Milton Keynes see their website at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/



Popular posts from this blog

Review of Breaking the Code at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Breaking The Code , the opening play in the new Made in Northampton season at Royal & Derngate, is a surprisingly old and rarely seen play. Written in 1986 by Hugh Whitemore, it tells the story of legendary codebreaker Alan Turing, a man who, in the 1980s, when this play first appeared, was relatively unknown. The years since the origin of this play have been good for Turing, with his life's work finally getting the recognition it deserves, and also, very much what this play centres on, a recognition of the horrific life and end that Turing had as a result of dealing with the laws of the day. Breaking the Code has seen life before on the stage of the Royal, as back in 2003, Philip Franks took to the role of Turing in a very well-received production. So, what of this brand new version directed by the Royal & Derngate's artistic director Jesse Jones? Does it live up to Turing's legend? That is an unquestionable yes with no machines needed to crack the class behind thi...

Review of Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...

Review of National Theatre Connections 2017 (16 Shows) at Royal & Derngate (Royal & Underground), Northampton

Alongside the University of Northampton BA Actors Flash Festival, the Connections festival at Royal & Derngate is now my joint favourite week of theatre each year. This is my fourth year at the festival and each time I have tried my very best (and succeeded) in seeing more and more of those on offer (four in 2014, ten in 2015 and twelve last year). This year I cracked sixteen shows, including the most interesting, a chance to see two of the plays by three different groups. I was able to see nine of this year's ten plays (a single nagging one, Musical Differences by Robin French was missing from the R&D line-up), and most I either enjoyed or finally understood their merits or reasons for inclusion. The writing of sixteen reviews is a little bit of an daunting prospect, however, I will do my best to review each of the plays and those I saw more than once, and pick around the comparisons. Extremism by Anders Lustgarten Performed by Bedford College Extremism was perfo...