Review

Bernice Harrison reviews Cinderella at Liberty Hall Theatre in Dublin

Cinderella
Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin

The Liberty Hall panto prides itself on being a traditional Dublin panto and it is. The gags in Cinderella come thick and fast, there are belting show tunes and right from the start the boys and girls in the audiences are engaged in the action - children on opening night were shouting back with gusto, singing along and gleefully booing every time the Wicked Stepmother wafted on stage.

Sammy Sausages, her mouthy servant played by Alan Hughes, has the sort of energy that would make the Duracell bunny look lazy. He is fantastic - a ring master, whipping the action along, gliding over the many opening night production snafus, and setting the effervescent tone for the evening. It's his and Buffy the Ugly Sister's show. Played by hugely talented panto veteran Joe Conlon, this is one hilarious ugly sister - larging it up and working the stage and Karl Broderick's script with a wicked sense of fun.

The big-name draw is Linda Martin and she looks magnificent as the Wicked Stepmother - the whole production shifts up several notches when she belts out one of her too few numbers. Sinead Mulvey is a sweet Cinderella, Niall Sheehy a funny and charming Prince, and Helen Langford a klutzy Fairy Godmother.

It's difficult to see where Simon Delaney, the show's director, left his mark. Most of the cast seem to do their own thing, which is fine when you're talking the calibre of Joe Conlon, but Fair City's David Mitchell could have done with a lot more help in making something of Dandini.

David Reilly plays the other Ugly Sister Barbie in the style of a Neanderthal doorman. With a bit of direction that might have been a gag puller but it fell flat.

There's no escaping how low-budget this production is. The stage is too small for all the action it's asked to take - and that's particularly true of the dance scenes. The set moves quite alarmingly - a bit of it even fell off - the music is supplied by a one-man band and the dancers don't have the professional gloss that's needed at this level.

Florrie O'Brien's wonderfully over-the-top costumes are let down by wigs that look like they came from a dodgy candyfloss machine, and renting a smoke machine is fine, but using it as much as this production does smacks of parish hall special effects.

Did the kids in the audience notice the poor production values? Oh, no they didn't. And that's the point of this giddy, high value, seasonal entertainment. It's simply great fun.

• Until Jan 22

Bernice Harrison