By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Cinderella has never been sillier. The ugly stepsisters have cellphone-wielding influencers acting as their personal PR team. The evil stepmother has a special bell to summon her so she can be booed down by the audience. A prince pretends to be a servant, and a servant pretends to be a prince. Bears in the woods hand out maps to lost tourists. And Cinderella has not one, not two, but three suitors vying for her hand in marriage. It’s utter madness!
And where might one find this modern Cinderella mash-up?
It’s the annual Drury Lane Theatre Christmas pantomime! On Friday, December 12, 2025, the musical theatre on Burlington’s New Street welcomed adults and children alike to celebrate the festive season with a whimsical, nonsensical retelling of the classic fairy tale, directed by Eleanor Belton. Cinderella is the unlucky daughter left behind after a loving father’s passing. Her stepfamily has spent all the money, so they force her to work as a household servant. She has dreams of escaping her unhappy situation, and her only chance is an invitation to the prince’s ball. But her stepmother and stepsisters, jealous of her good looks and goodness, forbid her from going. One of them is going to marry the prince, not her! Or so they think.
Ailah LeClerc plays Cinderella, sweet and lovely as a spring flower, opposite Caitlin Tolley as Prince Charming, whose high status and suave demeanour can’t hide the fact that he’s domestically useless and needs Cinderella to show him how to use a broom. Lou McManus makes a beautiful, white-gowned fairy godmother who speaks in rhymes. Interestingly enough, this fairy godmother doesn’t give Cinderella her iconic glass slippers; a fashion-conscious Cinderella picks them out for herself, much to her godmother’s disbelief. They aren’t very practical footwear, after all.
Caroline Clarke plays a new character named Buttons, Cinderella’s best friend and hopeless suitor, who is forced to accept over the course of the play that he’s not her predestined happily ever after. Claire Campbell is the wicked diva, The Baroness, Cinderella’s stepmother and greatest adversary. Rob Mines appears as the Prince’s vain manservant Dandini, who has dreams of grandeur but, unfortunately, not enough charm to pull off being a prince.
It can be argued that the true stars of the show, at least the pair that drew the most laughs and cheers, were the stepsisters. Long-serving Drury Lane Theatre comics Michael Belton and Al Skinner donned ridiculous frocks and wigs for a standout, gut-busting double act as Cinderella’s greedy and repulsive stepsisters Beryl and Cheryl. The stepsisters were not popular with the other characters in the play, but they were certainly very popular with the audience, who couldn’t stop howling at all their pathetic attempts to snag a bridegroom. All of the actors heroically delivered their lines against a theatre troupe’s greatest opponent for attention: a front row full of rowdy children given permission by pantomime tradition to yell out whatever they want, as loudly as they want.
As per usual for the annual pantomime, Drury Lane Theatre has partnered with Aspects of Dance to provide the young performers of Burlington a chance to show off their budding talents. The children were all decked out in sparkles and glitter, whites and silvers, greens and reds, for snazzy routines to some of pop culture’s great hit songs such as Madonna’s “Material Girl,” the Happy Days theme song, and Lady Gaga’s spooky “The Dead Dance,” which gained worldwide popularity after being used for a dance scene in Netflix’s Wednesday. The Aspects of Dance students performed their own ghoulish rendition that showcased clever synchronization and teamwork. All the Aspects of Dance kids have bright futures ahead of them as performers.
The next pantomime showing will be on December 19, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. After that, Drury Lane Theatre will offer evening and matinee performances on December 20 and 21, 2025. After the pantomime ends, Drury Lane Theatre will take a brief break for the holidays before resuming its entertainment lineup in January 2026 with The Linda Ronstadt Show, starring local performer Karen Coughlin.
