When it comes to intimacy with the audience, high good humour and knockabout farce, all laced with music and song, it is hard to beat the panto at St Anthony's Theatre. This year's Cinderella, presented by a core of seasoned performers joined by attractive new talents, is perhaps the best there for some years. There is no secret to its unqualified success. A good traditional script, sprinkled with a decent ration of new gags, underpins it. After a lively opening number, Alan Hughes, aka Sammy Sausages, sets the scene and the pace with a bravura exchange of comic banter with his well-earned fan club, and ends the session with a toe-tapping song-and-dance number. The lively interaction he generates kicks off a party atmosphere that lingers.
The other comedians, headed by veteran Val Fitzpatrick and a truly hilarious Joe Conlon as the two Ugly Sisters, are really hilarious, with the kind of impeccable timing that constantly hits the mark and the funnybone. Karl Harpur is a versatile Dandini, aide to Prince Charming, who is conceived and played as a handsome hulk by Kieran Gough. Sarah O'Flaherty is a very hip and error-prone Fairy Godmother, and Deirdre Monaghan is appropriately nasty as the Wicked Stepmother.
The 15-year old Sinead Mulvey, who plays Cinderella, is so good as to belie her age and novice status. She does everything - singing, dancing and acting - with confidence and appeal, clearly a trouper in the making. Four young dancers join in the musical items, and another four even younger girls add to the numbers. It is all great fun, a show that has won its audience by doing things its own way, and has nowhere to go but up.
Runs to early February. Bookings: 01-6706991/6726222