Cinderella - Sunderland Empire

He's behind you!

Yes Mickey Rooney THAT Mickey Rooney may well be behind you if you're in Sunderland over the christmas period. Don't worry though if you get scared he's a bit slow on his pins and you can get away by walking briskly. 

So why is he here? Well he's starring in Cinderella at the Sunderland Empire along with Les Dennis (comedian, went a bit bonkers on Celebrity Big Brother), Michelle Heaton (came second on Popstars the Rivals, part of Liberty X and her tits fell out at a photo shoot with Richard Branson) and Andy Scott-Lee (er...brother of that bird out of Steps who tried to re-launch her career on MTV and ended up making fantastic car crash telly). The other two notable people in it are Dale Meeks and Jan Rooney - more of whom lately. There's some other people too. And a set. And musicians.

So is it any good?

It's panto and it delivers exactly what it says on the tin. All the classic bits are there - he's behind you, oh no he's not etc etc. Mickey Rooney is the 'star' with top billing but to be honest it is Les Dennis and Dale Meeks who pretty much keep it going. Mickey is on for perhaps ten minutes in total and at times seemed like he hadn't bothered learning the script. However that's not meant as a criticism. The fact that he makes it look like he's wandered onto the stage and got involved just shows the pedigree of his life in showbiz. He sings a couple of songs very well indeed and you can see the star quality, if nothing else I can say I've seen a genuine star. He looks a bit dodgy when walking and there was at least one moment when I wondered if we were going to have a Sid James moment (look it up) but he did well. Did he do well enough to justify his fee? You'd have to ask the accountants but the audience loved that he was there and perhaps that alone is enough.

It is the other performers that really make the panto fun. Les Dennis is great, despite the fact I think he's a twat.  He knows his stuff, I had assumed he'd been in panto for years but I read yesterday that this is his first panto in ten years and the break didn't show. He got the kids (from 2 to 92) shouting and interacting. He knew how to play the audience and kept the energy up. Dale Meeks too as Dandini played his part working well with whowever he was on stage with. 

What about the male and female leads? Michelle Heaton and Andy Scott-Lee? Well they're both singers and they do the songs very well. They're not actors though and despite it being panto where you don't expect perfection just fun, it was annoying to watch the stilted moves and wooden acting, everyone else seemed to be trying hard and getting away with it. They didn't. The two ugly sisters were what you would expect with the nature of those roles, it would be hard for anyone to cock those roles up really so they were what i expected and no more really. If anything towards the end I kind of wanted them to turn into pumpkins. 

Jan Rooney can sing and the fee to her husband was either re-couped by having her on stage a lot or giving her a bigger part was part of the contract to get him over in the first place. She wasn't bad, I just found her parts a bit boring and a bit annoying and kept thinking she wouldn't be there were it not for Mr Rooney. Her bits slowed down the speed and for panto that isn't good.

As for the rest of the experience, the venue is great and the staff were fantastic and hugely friendly, especially towards the kids. Prices for refreshments and merchandise didn't cause sudden intakes of breath from parents. 

All in all the night did exactly what a good panto should. It turned a load of adults into kids for a couple of hours and it turned a load of kids onto going to the theatre. Not a bad job all in all.

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