Review: Manor Operatic Society's Cinderella pantomime at Sheffield City Hall

It’s time for the sparkly curtain to go up once more on the one and only Manor Operatic Society pantomime!

The biggest am-dram panto in England is back, this time with everyone’s favourite rags-to-riches story, Cinderella.

Barker’s Pool becomes the village of Stoneybroke – never more apt than in these straitened times – and Sheffield City Hall is transformed into Hardup Hall (except with the heating on).

The heroine of our story is here, along with her feckless father Baron Hardup, Buttons her lovelorn best friend, a glittering fairy godmother, a dashing Prince Charming, his right-hand woman Dandini…

But hang on – aren’t we missing somebody? Cue a hilarious pre-recorded video in Meadowhall to locate the Ugly Sisters – Gary Rossiter and Simon Hance, bawdily brilliant as Flora and Marge, the gruesome twosome who like their wigs big, their lashes long, and their fellas from Wybourn!

They’re shopping for Boxing Day bargains at Primarni and have forgotten the time, hijack a taxi and then come crashing through the doors to the stalls with their bags – in costumes that would make a drag queen blush. “Are trumps meant to have lumps?” asks one to the other as they break wind within seconds of climbing on stage. And we’re off…

Christmas simply wouldn’t be Christmas for generations of Sheffield families without the Manor Operatic panto – and the show wouldn’t be the festive treat it’s been for decades without the favourite moments everyone is waiting for.

So there are standout set-pieces: the ‘behind you!’ bench and lovely singalong Tiddly Winky Woo song, the super silly (and super sticky) Baking Time dough-fight with the audience, and custard pies in the face – and hair – of those panto-goers (un)lucky enough to be singled out at the front.

Everything is unashamedly OTT – why have just one panto dame when you can have three? – so the Ugly Sisters are joined by Robert Spink as Cinders’ stepmother Baroness Hardup, with gruff asides and bosom-nudges borrowed straight from the Les Dawson playbook.

There’s nothing modern or ‘woke’ about a Manor Operatic panto. The script’s as hammy as a pig in a blanket, some of the songs as old as the Christmas Day TV repeats. A character is called Fix It Fanny just to tee up a string of rude and risqué jokes.

Baroness Hardup should probably stop asking the little children on stage for the famous Bucket Game near the end where they live – given every one of them has clearly had Keeping Safe lessons at school, and refuses to tell on the grounds of privacy.

But it’s a family show first and foremost, young and old enjoying the tradition of panto together, and there are some magical moments that will live long in little children’s memories.

Katie Ann Dolling is a perfect living doll Cinderella, whose coach to the ball is pulled by real life white miniature Shetland ponies! Emily Mae Hoyland fizzes as Cinders’ fairy godmother, and Chris Hanlon, in his 16th Manor Operatic panto, somehow manages to keep the slapstick nonsense together as loveable Buttons.

There are gasp-out-loud pyrotechnics, a breathtakingly beautiful end to Act 1 in the Magical Land Where Dreams Come True, and every one of the sequin-encrusted, larger than life, costumes is sensational. Of all the hardworking cast and crew, Wardrobe Mistress Sandra Goodyear deserves a ticket to the ball, never mind Cinders.

Cinderella runs at Sheffield City Hall until Sunday, January 8, 2023.