Cinderella At The Bristol Hippodrome Theatre Review

Reviewed by Rachel Sworder

As we arrived it was snowing outside and everyone greeted us it was so nice to feel so welcomed, My girls were so excited to be back and this time to see Cinderella in panto!!!

The Bristol hippodrome is a wonderful traditional theatre with the lovely velvet chairs and traditional characteristics and booths with the curtains and with the cute binoculars, which more theatres unfortunately now lack this traditional feel.

They started on time and got straight in to roles as we all know the Cinderella story I don’t feel it needs to be explained as the story unfolds,
The fairy godmother mother (Alison Jiear) arrives in rather a bit too much smoke if I’m honest in the first scene as we could hardly see her,
she continued to throw her magic around the stage throughout the show and WOW us with her magic!! But does she manage to get Cinderella to her Ball?

Button (Andy Ford) was fantastic he interacted with the audience and had everyone giggling with his witty comments and his moves and kept everyone going all the way through with his adult humour and at the end he had everyone up dancing like we had been invited to the ball itself. His entertainment games were very upbeat and not a glum face to be seen and encouraged us to join in and shout traditional panto style.

Fab u lous (Craig Horwood) wicked step mother was again very entertaining and lots of interaction with her and Booos from the audience.

My girls were on the edge of their seats once the fairy godmother waved her wand and Cinderella
( Lauren Hampton) arrived “WOW” her beautiful gown they commented and were taken even more back by the Glass carriage!!!!I won’t say any more as it’s definitely a show stopping part!
Prince Charming was a pure gentleman desperate to find his princess. When he sang he has an Amazing voice with such clarity.

The two ugly sisters were great actors they played their parts so well mumbling and bumbling along and being mean at times to cinders, they did a routine which was really good fun to watch if they didn’t live at Harway house it was hilarious but so very well acted by all involved.When the prince arrived with the shoe they did their best to get their clumsy feet to fit but did everything needed to keep Cinderella at bay.

The lighting and sound and orchestra was brilliant and fully fitted the emotions going on at the time and the surroundings, palace backdrop stunning in all its beauty and loved all the sparkles.

The costumes were from start to finish on all characters of beautiful high quality and immaculate (Clare Freeman) my favourite was the soldiers costumes I really wished I had their part to be able to wear one( next year).
You could hear the cast very clearly and they all involved the audience with True Panto style the dancers were all very professional and in tune with one another and also able to step out of character to have a laugh with audience too which was nice to see not so formal side. Oh No you didn’t !!

Without doubt Cinderella has to be The fairy godmother of all pantos, I’d highly recommend coming to see it, ideal for all ages and a night out for Xmas to embrace more magical memories I’d rate it 5/5

Bristol Hippodrome
Sun 4 Dec – Sat 31 Dec 2022
Tickets available from £13.00
subject to a transaction fee of £3.80
Pantomime
2 hours 10 minutes
incl. interval

monitoring times are 9am – 5.30pm Mon – Fri.

To book tickets please call 0844 871 3012 (Access bookings and enquiries 0800 912 6971). For more information visit www.atgtickets.com/bristol.