If it's one for the money and two for the-show, then it must be Alan McHugh's rock 'n' roll Cinderella, also set in the 1950s and with every musical number an Elvis song. Other pantos have been picking up on the High School Musical theme but McHugh's script takes the enthusiasm for teen-bop'n'pop to a new level of inventive pastiche while keeping it connected to time-honoured panto protocols.
It's an exuberant fun-filled piece of clever writing that tells Cinderella's story with some touching twists - not only does the orphaned Cinders find a Prince, she also finds the family that vile Roxette lied about. Batteries of thunderous hiss-boo hardly match Roxette's awfulness. Actually, Riosin Gallagher's over-screechy performance doesn't do Roxette's mean-spirited, snobbish airs and graces many favours either while the Uglies - Alan Burgon and Lewis Misted - are in costume but not rip-roaringly in character.
This - and it's true of every RSAMD cast that attempts the white-water rapids of panto - has nothing to do with individual talents: not every year-group of students can come up with the exact casting fit. Which brings us back to Cinderella. Ashley Pontius (who hails from Ohio) is a Cinders who looks and sounds at home in Rockville High, as does Owen Whitelaw's Buttons, the geeky school square who looks as if he's stepped out of the vintage Archie comics.
All pales, however, before the majesty of John Parsons's King - a doddering wannabe rocker whose every speech is peppered with snatches of Elvis. Parsons's comic timing is spot on, he sings with a swivel and a snarl and he's in his element. Like the witty designs, he rocks - and for the most part, so does this bright and sassy panto.
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