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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Fiona Laird.
Cast: Pauline Collins, Sandi Toksvig, Debbie Chazen, Oliver Chopping, Hal Fowler, Paul Keating, Mark Lockyer, Joseph Millson, Madeleine Worrall
Description: Brand new pantomime written by Stephen Fry, with music by Anne Dudley, updating the traditional tale with the promise of laughter, passion, cruelty, love and a bit of chocolate and loads of cake.
Trains: Tube/BR: Waterloo 
Phone: 0870060 6628
Website: www.oldvictheatre.com
Extra info: Food, Pub
Plenty up top: Mark Lockyer and Hal Fowler make masculine Ugly Sisters
If the shoe fits: Sandi Toksvig (far left) is amusing as a gruff narrator
Having given us two Christmases of Sir Ian McKellen's well-frocked Widow Twankey, the Old Vic takes another step in the direction of Gay Pantomime with Stephen Fry's eagerly anticipated retelling of Cinderella.
In theatre as in life, though, anticipation turns out much more satisfying than rude reality. So it proves in Fry's dullish, modestly amusing and rather laborious retelling of the ancient fairytale, for which he has written unamusing lyrics for 10 songs to Anne Dudley's unmemorable music: "Oh will I ever see that very special he?" to take a typical example, makes the Cliff Richard songbook sound adventurous.
The best and serious novelty in this somewhat old-fashioned Cinderella is the emergence of Paul Keating's lovelorn Buttons as a half-open, gay young man, into dress design and domesticity, who forever teeters on the verge of coming out to Madeleine Worrall's sexually unsophisticated, not very passionate Cinderella.
In the panto's best, humorous moments they both sing and dream of a tall, dark stranger. The pair of them pursue parallel romances, when they manage to escape slaving in the basement kitchen where two, white puppet mice threaten to steal the limelight.
Joseph Millson's handsome Prince succumbs to love at first sight when he glimpses Cinderella at a ball to choose the Prince's wife. Meanwhile Oliver Chopping's Dandini, the Prince's aide de camp gazes transfixed at Keating's wistful Buttons and after a little mutual admiration ends up kneeling - quite respectably - asking for his hand, presumably in a civil partnership.
Interestingly a vociferous audience, with plenty of pre-teenagers in it, reacted to Buttons's gay longings with sounds of sympathy.
Fry's other invention comes in the shape of Sandi Toksvig who supplies a little lesbian, cross-dressing amusement as the narrator.
Modestly moustachioed, dressed in trousers and smoking jacket she sits suspended above the action in an armchair and gruffly speaks the author's jaded, unsparkling narrative. Stephen Fry and wit are supposed to be long-term companions, but it now looks and sounds as if they are undergoing a trial separation, with Fry the bereft party.
Some of the actors, though not Mark Lockyer and Hal Fowler as masculine, strutting and not very sexy ugly sisters, are saddled with a heavy-fisted armoury of innuendos and double entendres. These left me suffering from slightly indecent-exposure.
Those allusions to buttocks and, I think, vibrators, that sly, typical retort "You certainly know how to hold your balls" were neither funny nor to the point. The odd flash of learning struck incongruous notes too. "According to Plato happiness is contingent upon virtue," Buttons unbelievably remarks.
The intermittent virtues of Fiona Laird's slick production have to do with its appeal to kids - clever audience involvement and the odd, surprising flash of spectacle. Stephen Brimson Lewis's design offers a small pumpkin which magically expands into a vehicle.
Pauline Collins's cockney fairy godmother, who has a successful shot at flying, manages a bit of magic. A fairytale kitchen gives way to a down-at-heel, cardboard-wonder of a palace. Song and dance joviality reign supreme, but this is Fry well under par.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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I haven't laughed so much in years! 10 of of 10.
- Natalie, Twickenham
I just felt I had to post a comment after reading the Evening Standard review featured on this page. I thought this production was not only very well written but tightly and deftly directed and wonderfully performed. It is one of the best pantomimes I have seen and I think all involved should be applauded.
- Lindesay Mace, London
Anything starring Sandi Toksvig and Pauline Collins is pure gold. Buttons gay? Most have had their suspicions for generations. But Dandini? He was so far back in the closet he was out of sight and on cordial terms with Narnia’s Mr Tumnus.
In Panto camp, gender bending and cross dressing are the norm. ‘Conventionally’ two ugly, nymphomaniac sisters played by men, raunchy girls in boots and tights as roguish, aristocratic bachelors. Then one of the girls wins the girl!
Here male hunks play Prince Charming and Dandini. The Fry masterstroke, slash jobs for the girls. Bare, muscled torsos instead of thigh slapping. No problem at all for my theatre companion mate Eurydice! She was panting with her tongue out during the shower scene. But the gay ‘message’ is heavily ladled. The paradox being, Panto’s essence is innuendo, coarse humour poking fun at and debunking taboos. Here PC gayness becomes a central plot theme, hence no longer taboo, ergo not as funny. But still a worthy 7 out of 10.
- Guinevere French, Belsize Park, London, England
I think it was about time it was updated, and to include gay lyrics is great, the only way we can beat homophobia is to put it in peoples faces, at the end of the day as long as the people paying to see the show are happy, who cares. I say well done and lets see more like a Donny instead of Dorothy in the wizard of oz, now that would be good.
- Robert Washington, portsmouth
