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REVIEW: Cinderella - The Musical Pantomime, Mayflower, Southampton, until January 17.
Watch out for those seemingly-nice ushers who show you to your seats. It won't be long before they will be spraying you with water guns.
It's all part of the panto madness which has descended on Southampton - a very Mayflower madness.
There's nothing rough-and-ready or chaotic about it. This is highly-polished nuttiness delivered with the highest possible production values by big names in stunning costumes against great sets and painted backdrops accompanied by a full orchestra in the pit.
Just as you'd expect from the Mayflower at Christmas, this is lavish and spectacular.
Stefanie Powers floats above the stage as the Fairy Godmother, and the carriage really does take to the skies with its flying horse - great stuff which really does enchant.
The whole thing gets off to a bizarre start with flashing images of credit crunch headlines and then a tedious I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! style entrance for Christopher Biggins.
But once that's behind him, Biggins is in his element as a great fun Buttons, pumping up the sympathy, good with the laughs and lovely with the kiddies invited on the stage.
Matthew Kelly and his son Matthew Rixon give good value as the Ugly Sisters with an increasingly outrageous wardrobe; and Rachel Stanley is everything you could wish of a Cinderella, not least when she delivers the night's best song, I Can Hear The Bells from Hairspray - not that the song has too much competition.
Aside from a slice of Abba, too many of the songs are fairly nondescript - and several could comfortably be dropped, particularly at the start of the second half which gets off to the slowest of starts.
Overall, the panto is comfortably a quarter of an hour too long. A bit of cutting would benefit it hugely - especially a couple of lines which go just the wrong side of crude.
But this is still a panto with a huge amount to savour, with Biggins having a ball. His loose-limbed Riverdance is a hoot.
Phil Hewitt
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Weather for Chichester
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
