CINDERELLA
CAST LIST
| James Buttons | a handsome, debonair, devastatingly attractive secret agent |
| Q | M27's technical expert - whose wizardry gets Cinderella to the ball |
| M | Buttons' boss, the head of M27 |
| Miss Funnypenny | M's secretary. She adores Buttons |
| Baron Hardup | he's the Baron and he's, er, hard up! |
| Cinderella | the Baron's beautiful but put-upon daughter |
| Edna Stavro Blowave | Cinders' stepmother. Really the head of SMOOCH |
| Myopia | the Dame's ugly daughter |
| Diastema | Myopia's ugly sister |
| Odd-Doc | Blowave's mad inventor accomplice |
| Stooge | planted in the audience to help with the shrinking ray gag |
| Prince Charming | he's a prince and he's, well, er, charming! |
| Gino Dandini | the prince's personal servant |
| Footman | makes all the introductions at the ball |
| Clint Tricep | job applicant at Hardup Hall. Makes Boy George look butch! |
| Shrunken secret agents | as many as you have willing child actors |
| Townsfolk | who dance and sing in the opening scene and at the ball |
The panto was written for a smallish cast. The agents who get shrunk by a ray early in the panto are all children. If you have a really small child the audience will reward you with endless ooooh's and aaaah's!
Some parts can be played as a male or a female without any loss of effect. However, the Dame is traditionally played in drag. The Prince is ideally a principal boy in fishnet tights and Clint Tricep's camp comedy isn't funny unless delivered by a man.
Gino Dandini's shameless womanising is most easily carried off by a man but could be played by a woman if, like most amateur groups, you have too few men.
Picture adapted from Corel clipart
THE PLOT
The Dame, Edna Stavro Blowave and her two ugly daughters are in reality the leaders of SMOOCH, a secret organisation devoted to the destabilisation of our society. If Blowave can marry one of her daughters to the prince, she will have access to land she needs to create a super-tip where wire coat hangers and bicycle frames will be transformed into doomsday weaponry.
James Buttons is a secret agent, charged with the task of
undermining Blowave's scheme. He applies for the job of footman at Hardup Hall and befriends
Cinderella. Another applicant
for the job is Gino Dandini, the Prince's amorous personal
servant. He sees Cinderella
and arranges to invite her to the ball. Cinders is devastated
when her ugly step-sisters steal
the invitation. Buttons enlists the help of Q to get her to the
ball in a genetically modified
pumpkin, and the Prince falls in love with her.
Unfortunately, Q's transformations cannot endure past midnight and Cinders is forced to flee. The Prince sends out his agents to find her and, dispite some cheating by the ugly sisters his true love is found and all is well.
Funnypenny finally gets some time alone with Buttons and everybody lives happily ever after.