"Cinderella"
Nottingham Theatre Royal.

Nottingham, this year, is blessed with three excellent pantomimes, and I got a feeling that this one at the Nottingham Theatre Royal is going to break their box office records yet again, as this is one of the best pantomimes I have seen at the Theatre Royal.

It truly is, in every sense of the word, magical.

For me this year there are no headline stars to put "bums on seats" because they are all quite excellent in their roles.

The Ugly Sisters, Les Dennis (Michaela) and Connor McIntyre (Phelina) - you see what they did there Corrie fans? are immense fun as they regularly delve back to Weatherfield for their jibes.They even enter with dogs called Eileen and Gail - ooh the cheekiness of them! They really do make a brilliant pair, especially as the chemistry has been there for years now. Brilliant costumes, some great parodies and the perfect blend of nasty from both; just enough to have some of the audience booing, but comical enough to get the kids laughing at their antics.

Gareth Gates is Prince Charming, and he really looks the part. I have lots of respect for this man, way back to the Pop Idol days and his stammer, there is no sign of that today, and he even makes a joke about it. His acting is never stretched, neither is his singing as he croons his way through the songs, including his hit version of "Unchained Melody". He even looks at home with the comedy scenes, especially the one which includes a wall, Richard Cadell and Hannah Grace Lawson, which turns into a classic piece of slapstick.

For people of a certain age, it was great to see Sooty, with Sweep, who we weren't expecting, and neither have aged at all. Richard Cadell, as Buttons, was equally brilliant and showed what an incredible magician and entertainer he is, even without Sooty and Sweep to help him.

The magic, and I was quite close to the stage, was quite simply amazing, completely baffling how he disappeared and reappeared in different parts of the stage. Give me magic of this quality over 3D imagery any day. Comedy and magic blend perfectly with Richard and with or without Sooty and Sweep, he is a hit.

Kimberley Blake, as the Fairy Godmother, has a lovely operatic voice, and looking through her theatrical CV, she has appeared in many shows that would highlight such a gorgeous set of vocals. I loved her parody of "Fabulous Baby" from Sister Act. A nice touch of class to this classic panto.

Cinderella is played by Hannah Grace Lawson, and boy does she fit this role well. She looks stunning dressed in rags and looks equally stunning in the beautiful ball gown she gets to wear. Bringing the little kid out in me, she transformed from one outfit to the ball gown just by spinning around a few times - remember how Wonderwoman did it? Well this was the same technique but all before my wide child like eyes. Okay, it wasn't magic, but it was magical.

And last, but by no means least, Jack McNeill as the devilishly handsome Dandini. This boyish actor attracted the attention from the audience. No stranger to panto in Nottingham as he played Peter Pan in Nottingham a few years ago.

Visually this is s treat as Cinderella's horse and carriage hover over the audience before taking her to the ball, Sooty arrives by car and travels by minibus and there are several other things that are remotely controlled to keep your eyes all over the stage.

The section where we have Phelina, Michaela, Buttons and Prince Charming singing about what job they would do if they weren't at Hardup Hall was great fun with some of the choreographed pieces going, or so it seemed, slightly awry with the loss of a wig or two thrown in, and plenty of water cannons for the audience to avoid, oh yeah, like that is going to happen, avoiding water cannons!

Amazing costumes for all, a good mix of music, although I did note that a couple of the songs have already been heard in pantos in Nottingham already this year, but still great fun. And that is the main thing about this show, it is great fun throughout. The cast look like they are having fun, and so are we. Special effects, pyrotechnics, wonderful lighting, and the only thing that I could niggle about was that it was, at times, a bit loud on the music front as some of the clever parody lyrics were lost slightly.

As I said at the start though, this is possibly the best panto I've seen here at the Theatre Royal, and that is saying something as I've seen many wonderful productions.

"Cinderella" is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Sunday 5 January.

Photos by Whitefoot Photography.