Theatre

Cinderella at the Parr Hall Warrington Review

3-12 January 2020

Reviewed by Rebecca Wong

Tis the season of the panto, a time for providing lasting memories for little ones, of laughter and shouting at the top of your voice ‘he’s behind you’!  This year’s production of Cinderella at Parr Hall in Warrington gave us all of that and more. This has been brought to us by a local charity called Culture Warrington in association with Tony Peers Productions and had a cast of many talents.

Cinderella is a story of a young beautiful girl and her windowed father, Baron Hardup. Cinderella finds herself acquiring 2 rather ugly and mean stepsisters, Rebecca and Colleen, who treat her as a house salve, expecting her to wait on them hand and foot. Luckily, she has her trusty friend Buttons who looks out for her in the (rather ugly) face of her two bullying stepsisters. Meanwhile tickets are given out to invite everyone to the Prince’s glittering ball where they will all get a chance to meet him and possibly become his bride! However, the mean stepsisters have other ideas; not wanting Cinderella to go, they bully her into destroying her ticket to increase their own chances with the Prince. Little do they know though that the prince has already fallen in love with Cinderella, that her kind heart has invited a helpful offer from her fairy Godmother and that Buttons will always have her back.

This panto, although a small production has all the ingredients of a perfect night of family fun. Its pitched perfectly for a young audience with plenty of jokes thrown in for the grown-ups. The young dancers were lovely to watch, the costumes were great with some surprisingly quick changes thrown in and even some actors playing more than one character! The music was great with lots of modern hits included to appeal to a young audience, but they fit in so well to the story. The ugly sisters where a scream to watch, hilariously funny, they incorporated a great banter with the audience that added to their appeal. Buttons was fantastic and was did well at increasing audience interaction.

I went with my mum, 4-year-old daughter and 9-year-old niece. They absolutely loved it and the sweet Cinderella stole their hearts. It was wonderful watching them join in with the heckling and laughing out loud to Buttons and his crazy antics. Look out for the hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas song that really got the audience shouting, jumping about in their seats and giggling uncontrollably.

The theatre is incredibly family friendly, the audience was made up of all ages from babies to grandparents and the performance offered something for everyone. If you’re looking for some great family fun this panto season, this fabulous performance is running until January 12th and is priced at £13 a ticket with some concessions and offers available or £40 for a family ticket. It’s a 5/5 from me for fun and all-round entertainment value for all the family.

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £10.50 to £13 (booking fees may apply).

Cinderella is at the Parr Hall in Warrington from 3-12 January 2020, for more information or to book tickets visit parrhall.culturewarrington.org or call the box office on 01925 442345.

Pyramid & Parr Hall, Cultural Quarter, Palmyra Square South, Warrington, WA1 1BL

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