The Poster — The Programme
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The Poster — The Programme |
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Puck (Kathryn Kendall) starts the show. |
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Gladys, the Fairy Godmother (Dil Williamson-Smith) interrupts Puck and calls for the curtains to open … |
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… on a street scene with the chorus singing "On a Wonderful Day Like Today" |
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Squire Welwyn (Martin Wellen) arrives with his bailiff Baldock (Rufus Kendall) and berates the chorus for slacking. |
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The Prince's aide Dandini (Mel White) appears, giving out invitations
to the Prince's Grand Ball; |
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… who arrive to be handed their invitations – but Cinderella (Charlotte Lewis) is reluctant to take hers. |
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As soon as Dandini leaves, the Ugly Sisters (Lee Carter and Gavin Rasburn) arrive to snatch the invitations from her … |
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… then discuss what they should wear at the Ball and rush off leaving Cinders with their bags. |
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Buttons (Annaliese Farnlucher) arrives to console Cinders … |
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… and they sing "With a Little Help From My Friends" before leaving with the Sisters' boxes and bags. |
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Baldock and the Squire are back with their shopping for the Ball –.but the Squire takes a liking to Baldock's silk scarf and purloins it – to go with his suit, shirt, shoes, socks and chapeau. |
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When Baron Hardup (Thomas Hiller) arrives and the Squire is engaged in asking him for the rent, Baldock sneaks the scarf back. |
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Buttons joins the Baron in singing "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", with the assitance of the Chorus. |
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We cut to Gloria (Angela Berry) a bad but incompetent fairy, in her grotto, mixing a potion to make people immortal. |
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And here we get our first look at Griselda (Caroline Stephenson), Cinderella's wicked stepmother, who wants to be made immortal. But the spell isn't going well. She'll come back later. |
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Now here's the Prince Charming (Karina Farnlucher) explaining his 'good idea' to Dandini – he will go into town in Dandini's clothes to mingle with the common people. |
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In the Baron's kitchen the Ugly Sisters complain to him about having no clothes fit for the Ball. |
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The Stepmother berates the Baron for taking sides against her daughters, and tells him she's going away to visit a friend for a few days (she has friends!?) |
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Buttons and Cinders are left to find food for a meal, which they think is a hopeless task … |
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… but while they're off searching, Puck and some fairies (and an elf!) magically arrive with food. |
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The Squire and Baldock walk in without knocking, to "assess the assets, calculate the cash, work out the wealth, list the lot and tot up the total" … |
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… but they didn't bargain for meeting the Ugly Sisters embroiled in their boudoir. |
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The scene ends with a rendition of "Sisters" from the sisters. |
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Puck and the fairies report to the Fairy Godmother on their exploits
with the food. |
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Cinders and Buttons are coming back from a shopping trip with the Ugly Sisters, carrying all their purchases. They meet the Prince in disguise. He is snubbed by the Ugly Sisters … |
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… but Cinders helps him – and Buttons makes a discreet exit with all the baggage while they sing "Can't Remember Where or When" |
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The Fairy Godmother arrives, disguised as a 'dear old crone', and asks
Cinders to help her with her shopping. |
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Back in the Baron's kitchen, the chorus for some reason are giving us "Oh What a Night" … |
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… but they very soon scarper when told that the Ugly Sisters were about to come into the kitchen to 'do their faces'. |
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Eventually the family was ready to go to the Ball – but Cinders was to stay at home … |
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… feeling sorry for herself. |
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But wait! Who's this coming to the rescue? The FG, in the nick of time … |
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… with Puck to collect the usual assortment of rats, frogs, lizards and of course the precious pumpkin [made by Caroline Stephenson – many thanks!] |
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There's magic in the air – and a coach appears … |
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… then visible for all to see. |
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Another flash, and Cinders' rags are transformed into a ballgown |
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We're back in Gloria's grotto, and things are going from bad to worse |
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At the Prince's ball the guests dance to the Ascot Gavotte.. |
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But all is not well. The Prince hasn't turned up, and Cinderella has arrived late. |
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Eventually the Prince comes down from his room in a sulk – until he sees Cinders. |
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After that, he and she are inseparable … |
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… leading to tittle-tattle and discontent in certain quarters. |
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But it all ends at midnight, with Cinders fleeing and (of course) leaving
a shoe behind. |
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Everyone wants to know who the mystery girl was, and there's a reward
for finding out. |
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Baldock, the Squire and the Ugly Sisters accost Buttons to find out. |
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The fairies get involved – they will keep an eye on things – but first they do a fairy dance. |
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Gloria comes in remorse to 'fess up to Gladys that she's a failure. |
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Dandini is doing ther rounds of all the houses in town, and has come
to the Baron's last. |
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Buttons goes to fetch Cinders from her room – and of course it fits. |
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The Prince is called in, and all ends well! It always does in pantomime. |
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In fact a double celebration, as Dandini and Alice (Abby Hibberd) are also to wed. |
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Now the Community Song, to allow everyone else time to change into their
finery. |
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The Fairy Queen makes a final speech ending, as usual, with "See you next year" … |
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… and Dandini announces the arrival of the entourage of the Prince Charming and the Princess Cinderella. |
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Cue the Walkdown of the cast – starting with the Chorus and Fairies. |
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Finally eveyone gives their all to "Hey, Look Me Over" – and hopefully we send the audience away happy. |
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At least, Neil at the lighting desk seems to have enjoyed it. |
PS. We had an interesting situation develop on the second weekend when Cinderella
lost her voice and her lines had to be read for her from the side of the stage
by Jenna.
Thank you Jenna – it worked well.
After a rumbustious piratical adventure with their own version of the Women's Institute last year, Headley returned to more traditional pantoland with perennial favourite Cinderella. It has delighted the village hall audiences for seven Januaries. Only Sleeping Beauty has beaten it with five - so far. The fact that the good people of Headley have come to see no less than sixty-three different pantomime productions since Robinson Crusoe in 1953 suggests that the club must be getting something right.
It is always a delight to see the younger members of the cast who are such an important part of the shows. This year the Junior chorus of Isla-Rose Jarrett, Skye Larkin and Luan and Luna Webb were involved in the action from the very start, engaging our attention as they started the entertainment when they entered the auditorium with Puck (Kathryn Kendall).
It is also a pleasure to see those who started at Headley as juniors come back in later years. Thomas Hiller, first seen as a junior in 2005 and appearing in many pantos until 2017, made a welcome return to Headley with an assured performance as the long-suffering Baron Hardup alongside Caroline Stephenson's frightening Griselda – not someone to get on the wrong side of. Lee Carter first appeared here in 2002, also in Cinderella, when he played Baldock, the Squire's bumbling henchman. After a show-stopping perfomance as Gizzard Slitter in last year's Treasure Island, he stepped effortlessly into the role of Petunia, one of the Ugly Sisters. Lee and Gavin Rasburn as Nasturtium, the other Ugly Sister, and equally memorable as pirate The Fridge last year, once again showed their talents for comedy and slapstick.
The play was written and directed by Jo Smith and Dil Williamson-Smith who have been stalwarts at Headley since Jo first joined to play the part of Ali Baba's stupid brother in the panto of that name in 1978, going on to play the Demon Wolf in Red Riding Hood in 1982 and then to write and direct many of the Headley pantos over the years. Dilys was also this year's Fairy Godmother, playing opposite her rather hapless sister Gloria (Angela Berry) who incurred the wrath of Griselda by failing to brew the demanded potion of immortality.
Headley has always welcomed new faces, and Charlotte Lewis was an engaging Cinderella, opposite the experienced Karina Farnlucher returning to the role of Prince Charming, and Emily Kennedy joined the ranks of the Senior Chorus who all gave an impressive display of choreography (directed by Dil), and entered with gusto into the many musical numbers provided by the capable hands of musical director and pianist Jo Levy accompanied by Jo Smith on bass and Zak White on percussion.
Their spirited rendition of "On a Wonderful Day Like Today", in front of a colourful street scene by Cavan and Loretta Syrad, was soon interrupted by Squire Welwyn (Martin Wellen) and his rather dim sidekick (Rufus Kendall) who accuses them of slacking – something this busy and cheerful Chorus never showed any sign of doing. Annaliese Farnlucher delighted us with her interpretation of Buttons, with assured performances by Mel White as Dandini and Abigail Hibberd as Alice.
Will Headley be performing a panto in 2026? Oh yes they will!
Rod Sharp
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