Review: Cinderella at the Liverpool Empire

Dec 18 2008 by Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle

CINDERELLA/Empire Theatre, Liverpool, until January 11

REVIEW/by Jo Henwood

CINDERS did go to the ball at the Liverpool Empire and what a ball it was.

The theatre’s Christmas offering is a fitting end to the city’s year as European Capital of Culture with glittering stars aplenty.

Liverpool’s most famous daughter Cilla Black made a special homecoming trip for the show which could so easily have been dubbed Cillarella.

Laced with her hit singles and a few surprise surprises, the show is a This is Your Life of the pop singer-cum-presenter who started life as a cloakroom attendant in the Cavern Club.

She hasn’t lost her touch and has the audience eating out of her hand from the moment she flies in to open the show to the flashing cameras waiting at the stage door.

Jennifer Ellison plays the eponymous role of downtrodden step-sister of two harridans whose rags to riches tale has spanned centuries. The talented singer, dancer and actress is every little girl’s dream of a princess when she eventually nabs her man.

The Hardup’s family fortunes are overseen by the hapless Buttons, played by another of Liverpool’s celebrity sons, Les Dennis, who provides a ‘lorra lorra laughs’ throughout the near three-hour extravaganza.

Other stars include Hollyoaks’ Nick Pickard as Dandini and the governor of CBBC’s The Slammer Ted Robbins as Baron Hardup.