Special Effects and Specific Moments and the Story of Cinderella

In this section you will find out more about what happens in the story. After the story, we have included warnings about special effects and specific moments which might be dramatic, distressing or exciting and you might want to read or talk about before coming to see the show.

Spoiler alert! Both of these contain spoilers! Don’t read ahead if you don’t want to know what happens before seeing the show.

Act One (Spoiler alert!) After the lights go down, a Norwich Theatre Royal Steward comes on stage and is turned into a Fairy Godmother! We arrive in Nodgechester. Cinderella and her father, Baron Hardup, are waiting for Cinderella’s sisters, Alexa and Siri, to get back from their holiday to Spain. Baron Hardup is looking for his servant, Buttons. Cinderella meets Prince Charming, but she doesn’t recognise that he is royalty. Buttons appears and teaches us his catch-phrase - ‘Hiya, are you having a laugh?’ Cinderella comes out of the house and sings ‘Somebody to Love’, with the help of some farmyard animals and puppets. Prince Charming is going to throw a grand ball, and invites all the ladies in town. Alexa and Siri want to rip up Cinderella’s invitation so that she can’t go, but Buttons wants to make sure they don’t - so that he can give it to Cinderella and tell her that he loves her! At the Prince’s Fayre, The Fairy Godmother is dressed as a fortune teller. She sings a song with Buttons, Prince Charming and Cinderella. Buttons keeps getting kicked or hit in the dancing! He falls over and slips. It’s very funny. The actor isn’t really hurt, he’s just pretending. Prince Charming and Cinderella take a ride on the Tunnel of Love and sing ‘Rewrite the Stars’. Back at the house, Alex and Siri rip up Cinderella’s dress and make Cinderella rip up her own invitation so that she can’t go to the ball! The Fairy Godmother arrives, transforms Cinderella’s ripped dress into a beautiful new gown, changes Hercules the horse into a flying white steed, and changes a pumpkin into a carriage! She sends her off to the ball to find her true love - But she must leave before midnight!

Act Two (Spoiler alert!) We arrive at the Prince’s Masked Ball. The evil sisters sing ‘Twist It’ and dance with the men at the ball, hoping to catch the Prince’s attention. But the Prince is talking to Cinderella, who he doesn’t recognise in her new gown and mask. The clock strikes 12 and Cinderella runs off, leaving her crystal slipper behind! It’s pouring with rain outside and Baron Hardup, Buttons and the evil sisters have to walk home through the woods in a thunderstorm. The Prince declares that he will marry the girl who’s foot fits the crystal slipper perfectly. To distract the evil sisters from trying to fit into the slipper, The Fairy Godmother and Buttons trick them into getting a free massage and tanning session at Norwich City Fitness Club. Buttons and The Fairy Godmother dress up like Fitness Club staff and give the evil sisters the most horrible massage in the world! The sisters realise that Buttons is tricking them and make him and The Fairy Godmother go in the tanning booth where they get gunged with orange tanning liquid! All the ladies in Nodgechester try on the crystal slipper, including the evil sisters! Finally, Cinderella tries on the crystal slipper and it fits. The Prince and Cinderella are to be married! Buttons and The Fairy Godmother come out to sing a song with everyone. The words are up on a big board. It’s a funny song about finding fluff in your belly button! They decide to have a competition, each side of the audience has to try and sing louder than the other! After the song, it is the Royal Wedding of Prince Charming and Cinderella, all the characters come down the stairs and bow as the audience applauds.

Special Effects and Specific Moments (Spoiler alert!)

 There is a live band playing music throughout the performance.  The actors are using radio microphones during this performance.  There is smoke/haze (on stage) during some scenes.  Characters appear and disappear from beneath the stage through a trap door, with smoke and sound effects.  Every time someone pops out of a trapdoor when Buttons is onstage, he screams.  At the end of Act One and Act Two, the curtain will come down once, be lifted up to show the stage one more time, and then come down again.  After the lights go down, a ‘Norwich Theatre Royal Steward’ comes on stage to make an announcement – this will soon be the Fairy Godmother.  In a puff of smoke, the Steward is turned into a Fairy Godmother, her steward uniform changes into a sparkly outfit, a wand appears out of a trapdoor, and confetti falls.  The Fairy Godmother throws sweet packets and sweets into the audience.  The Fairy Godmother flies across the stage on a glittering seat shaped like a crescent moon.  The Babes dress up in farmyard animal costumes and dance alongside Cinderella, there are also hand-puppets in this scene.  Hercules the pantomime horse is played by two people in a costume.  There are moving set pieces throughout the performance.  The Tunnel of Love ride and Cinderella’s carriage both lift up into the air.  During the Tunnel of Love song, Buttons, Baron Hardup and the evil sisters chase each other around the stage in life-size dodgem cars.  During the masked ball, the Fairy Godmother and Buttons perform a ballet routine with a huge balloon. The balloon in the ballet scene might pop.

 There are flashing lights and thunder sound effects during a storm in Act Two. There will also be real water falling on the stage and onto Buttons.  The Fairy Godmother traps Baron Hardup in big box which is lowered over him from above, and he disappears down into the trapdoor.  The dancers at the Fitness club use big exercise balls, steps and skipping ropes to dance with.  The massage scene is performed behind a screen casting shadows, and it looks like The Fairy Godmother and Buttons are stretching and pulling the sisters’ legs and arms, and even puling of their legs off. They are using fake arms and legs to make the shadows.  Buttons convinces The Fairy Godmother to let him use the trapdoor, but he gets stuck with his head poking out before he disappears below the stage.  Confetti may fall over the audience.  When the evil sisters try on the slipper, Alexa’s stockings are pulled off, they seem to go on forever, and are attached to a big pair of her bloomers.  Siri’s foot fits in the slipper, but then it’s revealed that it’s not her foot, she has hidden a mannequin leg under her skirt.