Cinderella

Out of This World

Cinderella

by James Rushbrooke

The Questors Theatre at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 31^st December

Review by Polly Davies

I can think of no better way to cope with the run-up to Christmas than to make time for a trip to Questors to see this production of Cinderella. Totally engaging, beautifully produced, it delivers sheer joy. If you can go on an evening that has a group as infectiously enthusiastic as the young scouts who were in the audience tonight even better. It was an added bonus to see children so total invested in the performance. All credit to the leaders who were skilfully managing this excited and engaged group whose enthusiasm was infectious.

It was a stroke of genius by James Rushbrooke to set the story of Cinderella in the 1980s in a universe far far away, a modernisation that made the evening even more pantomime than a traditional setting. With exaggerated costumes, big hair, neon-bright colours, director Rory Hobson was able to go full out brash, blousy and fun. The script didn’t miss an opportunity for the corniest of corny jokes, and lots of familiar pantomime audience interaction. Some story lines were scary enough for some raise-the-roof booing. There was an interesting double love story which brought out the “aahs” for the inevitable happy endings, and a really good use of the auditorium to bring the players closer to the audience all added to the atmosphere.

Cinderella’s home has been moved from a lowly fireside to a run-down launderette, but the basic familiar story of a lost slipper remains. An over-story of a brother and sister separated by demons in a faraway familiar universe could have been a bit clunky, but it gave the script that necessary level of pathos, provided plenty of menacing moments and the kids loved it. Allowing Cinderella to have more agency in her choice of beau than usual made it more relatable to today’s audiences, and the opportunity for some fun puppetry including a very cute demon kept the pace going at full pelt.

All the costumes were magnificent. It is difficult to pick out the highlights – colourful, sparkly, scary or fancy outfits for the step-perfect choruses, with a special mention to the mini Spandau ballet troupe. A truly enviable set of 80s outfits for Samantha Boffin’s gloriously wicked Gloria von Glitz, was only bettered by the tour de force of the costumes which so perfectly characterised the ugly sisters. Gold lamé will never be the same again.

The jokes are unending, including some lovely knock-about between Frances Sherwin and Simon Higginson as Penfold and Bungle, and the gentle humour of Derek Stoddart’s Bernie. Some lovely vocals from Adam Watt and Julice Liecer’s, whose Cinderella was perfect, humble but spunky, along with her beautiful voice. And some stellar performances. Sally Parker’s delightfully grumpy fairy godmother would have won the day if it hadn’t been for the double dose of pantomime dames provided by Rory Hobson and James Rushbrooke. Those two as those characters should have a TV series of their own. And then there were all the best tunes from the ‘80s, a generous sprinkling of ‘80s references throughout the evening and some very impressive scene changes. A few technical first-night hitches didn’t break the mood. So if you want to get your kids away from the screens, and discovering or revisiting live theatre, take them here. If you haven’t got kids, borrow some or just come along anyway. You won’t regret it.

Polly Davies, December 2025

Photography by Carla Marker