Brandon Nicholson’s Harmony Hard-Up, left, and Luke Attwood’s Melody Harmony Hard-Up, the outre Ugly Sisters in Cinderella at the Grand Opera House, York. All pictures: Charlie Kirkpatrick Photography
THIS is the closest to a blue pantomime that York has ventured in 36 years of reviewing, and not because of the winter chill or the rising waters on the Ouse.
“Having a ball” in Cinderella takes on a whole new meaning in 2019 Great British Awards Best Script winner Jon Monie’s frankly fruity panto frolics, led by the thoroughly naughty Ugly Sisters of Luke Attwood and Brandon Nicholson’s Melody and Harmony Hard-Up.
You might say they struck a false note, but there appeared to be plenty who favoured rudery over prudery, just as writer Monie and director Ellis Kerkhoven favoured slap-and-tickle over slapstick, a staple panto ingredient noticeably absent from Cinderella beyond the obligatory, well-worn ghost bench scene.
Lisa George’s Fairy Godmother and Rachel Grundy’s Cinderella on song in Cinderella
Monie is on the money in keeping the already familiar storytelling to the fore, allied to set-piece routines and the rather more cuddly comedy of actor, comedy performer and host Jimmy Bryant’s lovelorn Buttons, although even he takes a shine to a double entendre ou deux.
Bryant does, however, have a rather lovely moment in conversation with a trio of shy/not-so-shy children picked from the audience for the Songsheet (Walking On Sunshine), a panto tradition lost from the Theatre Royal show.
Former Coronation Street star Lisa George swaps “loud, gobby” Beth Sutherland for the lighter beams of the beatific Fairy Godmother, up for a laugh and a song or two; Karl Moffatt’s Baron Hard-Up is a thoroughly good egg who stays out of the limelight –and sensibly out the way of monstrous Melody and Harmony – while Leeds lad Bradley Judge’s Dandini stays on the straight and narrow in his character-swapping double act with Mamma Mia I Have A Dream winner Tobias Turley’s Prince Charming.
Bradley Judge’s Dandini, left, and Tobias Turley’s Prince Charming larking around in Cinderella
Turley’s dandy royal handles the nudge-nudge, wink-wink stuff with aplomb and a knowing look, while keeping such boisterous boys-will-be-boys banter out of the hearing of West End musical actress Rachel Grundy’s rather more demure golden gal of a Cinderella. They both show off knockout singing chops, whether solo or in duet, but songs are often kept strangely short, even shorter than Strictly Come Dancing competitors’ routines.
This diminishes the impact of, for example, Golden, the KPop Demon Hunters hit that seemingly no panto can leave out this winter. The 2025 tick list also includes 6/7, Traitors (and Faithfuls), and Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club (re-booted as Pink Palace Club), and all are ticked off here, along with a profusion of bottom burps, especially in the aforementioned ghost-bench shuffling.
White ponies, rather than pink, make an appearance, spoiler alert, at the climax to kitchen skivvy Cinderella’s transformation scene, orchestrated with a magician’s flourish by George’s Fairy Godmother: the show’s height of spectacle.
Jimmy Bryant’s Buttons with ensemble members Yasmin Riley, Maisie Marsh, Bill Evans, Matt Saunders, Joe Nolan and Nicole Jackson
York references are used sparingly; Popworld pops up, so too Bettys, and not one, but two digs at York City when, ironically, the Minstermen are only a point off the top of the National League.
Towering over this Cinderella are Attwood’s Melody (“it’s pronounced m’Lady”, she doth protest too much) and Nicholson’s Harmony in the West End “drag superstars” seventh year of Ugly Sister tongue-in-cheekery, in the manner of Julian Clary’s fabulously suggestive turn in the London Palladium pantomime or indeed Simon Knock’s dame in the Leeds City Varieties rock’n’roll pantos.
Saucier than a French kitchen, smuttier than soot, they exploit every chance to be rude, crude and lewd, while never resorting to language as colourful as their utterly fabulous costumes (designed and constructed by the duo in tandem with Morgan Fergusson).
Rachel Grundy’s Cinderella transforms into Princess Crystal
Their “need to be skinny for when we meet the Prince” was a line delivered in the cause of a sight gag where they shrink to puppet size in a sweltering sauna, but it might be rephrased at a time when body dysmorphia among the young is a troubling concern.
Overall, these outre girls just wanna have fun, like a York hen party, and if you enjoy boisterous badinage with all the subtlety of Mercutio’s scatalogical teasing of the Nurse in Macbeth, then Melody and Harmony will be comedy music to your eyes. If not, and you would prefer them to clean up their act, then you will have a bawl rather than a ball here.
Rob Bannon leads his band in brisk fashion, matched by Xena Gusthart’s happy and hearty choreography for principals, ensemble and Dance Expression School of Dance juniors alike. Set design is never the strongest point of UK Productions’ York pantos, lacking local detail, but there is gold dust to the walkdown finale as each character throws a glittering flurry of ticker tape over themselves on entry: Kerkhoven’s most original directorial flourish. The gold after all that blue.
UK Productions present Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 4 2026. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Brandon Nicholson’s Harmony took a tumble from a stool in a slapstick scene in Cinderella on press night, dislodging his headgear to reveal his bald pate. In doing so, he recalled the propensity of the equally follically challenged Berwick Kaler to lose his wig in water splosh scenes in his York dame days. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
