BWW Reviews: CINDERELLA, New Wimbledon Theatre, December 9 2014

I recall a Christmas Eve in the 70s when my dad stopped at an off-licence to buy a bottle of Advocaat. I asked him why, because nobody drinks it. "It's Christmas - we always have a bottle of Advocaat." His point was a good one - Christmas is no time for innovation, it's a time for doing what one always does and enjoying it! And what New Wimbledon Theatre always does at Christmas is hire a big eye-catching name, load up the glitz and the gags and give everyone, from toddler to granny, a fantastic time. It's not broke so they haven't fixed it.

This year's David Hasselhoff is Dallas drama queen Linda Gray, who looks a million dollars (which might actually underestimate how much her looks cost) as the Fairy Godmother. She has the requisite star quality (and proves a good reason for Eric Potts - writing again for Wimbledon - to shoehorn in as many references to her primetime glory days as he can: and he sure does!). Early in the run, she is a little hesitant with her rhyming couplets and slightly bemused by the whole panto thing, but she really enjoyed the encore and clearly gets on with the rest of the cast, so I'm sure she will warm to her work and relax into the role.

The rest of the cast is the main reason why this year's panto really flies, the best I've seen at this venue. Matthew Kelly and his son Matthew Rixon have done the Dame thing before and it shows in their timing, in their playing against each other and in their carrying off the glorious Ugly Sister costumes. They get excellent support from James Doherty (Baron Hardup) and the winsome couple, Amy Lennox and Liam Doyle, as Cinders and her Prince.

Wayne Sleep is exactly as much fun as you would imagine as Dandini - he can still twirl like a man half his age - and it's great to see him half-corpsing at the sheer absurdity of it all, even after all his years in showbiz. Tim Vine is also superb, delivering his trademark puns that are so bad the QC department at Poundland would reject them for their 24 packs of crackers. He is also wonderfully adept in dealing with the children brought up on stage just prior to the finale, getting laughs from adults and kids as he ad-libbed and got through one of theatre's trickiest ten minutes with aplomb.

There's plenty more that one has come to expect from SW19's panto: the star's introduction film; the spectacular 3-D sequence; the patter routine; a dazzling Frozen-inspired first-half closer; and very little in the way of double entendre - this really is a family show. It's not the cheapest panto seat in London, but you can see exactly where all that budget has been spent and, after two and a half hours of songs, laughs and "Behind Yous", the audience filed into the night chattering excitedly about what they had enjoyed the most. You will go a long way before finding happier post-panto punters - and they're not wrong.

Cinderella continues at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 11 January.

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