Cinderella returns – meet the stars of Manchester’s magical pantomime

It might feel like we have just said goodbye to Summer, but the panto season is a couple of months away now.

So, to get you all in the mood I had a chat with three of the stars of Cinderella which arrives at the Opera House in December.

It stars Jason Manford, Ben Nicklass, Myra DuBois, Wendy Mae Brown and Sarah Vaughan.

Jason is currently on tour and starring in Waterloo Road, but we managed to chat to everyone else.

So, before someone shouts, they’re behind you – let’s catch up with Ben.

Ben Nickless – Buttons

How does it feel to be back in Manchester?

Great!  I love it, I love pantomime in Manchester.

It is my perfect Christmas. Every year, it’s been such a great joy to play at the Opera House, to play to the Manchester crowd, and this year’s pantomime, Cinderella is the most magical pantomime that you can get. Loving it!

You won an award for best panto comic last time you played Buttons in Cinderella; how does that feel?

I know, the pressure’s on innit! If I don’t win it again, it’s Jason Manford’s fault.

Is there a rivalry between you two then?

Not at all! We did the first one about three years ago, we did Peter Pan and he was Hook and I was Smee, and there are always those two comics working together, how’s that gonna work, are they both gonna be after the laughs?

But he is the most generous performer and I’d like to think I’m generous as well, we both let each other have their moment.

We get into the rehearsal room, it’s just a case of let’s try this, let’s try that, and that carries on until the last show. 

That’s not working how we thought, shall we try that? Working with Jason is an absolute joy. And Myra!

We’ve got Myra as well who’s hilarious, but we don’t have many scenes with her, she has her own schtick.

Jason and I end up doing a few routines together and things, it’s great. We just have a laugh!

I’m getting paid for having a laugh listening to those two have a laugh on stage.

There are worse ways to spend Christmas, you could be with your family!

This is what the audience will be doing so hopefully we’ll cheer you all up.

What keeps you coming back to panto-land every year?

I love it! It’s bringing families to the theatre, it’s tradition isn’t it?

People come to the pantomime no matter what it is or who’s in it, they’ll come and see it.

It’s the family together, you’re entertaining 5-year-olds to 95-year-olds and it’s the kid’s first taste of the theatre normally when they come with their family or their school or the clubs they go to.

It was my first experience, when I was a kid I went to the panto in Manchester when I was 5 or 6, I saw Jack and the Beanstalk and even then I was thinking, I’d love to do that one day.

So, if I could tell that 5-year-old kid, one day that will be you, I’d be like ‘oh wow!’ I am actually living the dream, I really am.

It’s an absolute joy!

You’ve worked with a lot of celebs, including Jason Manford, but who has been your favourite person to work with so far?

That’s such a hard question!

I know this is a boring answer, and you’ll be like ‘Tell us the truth!

Give us the dirt, who’s the worst but I’ve been so lucky and I’ve done 20 years of pantomime, and I can honestly say I’ve not had any issues with anybody and I’ve enjoyed working with them all!

Before Jason, it was Alexandra Burke, and she was great because she just giggled a lot on stage, she’s great.

Craig Revel Horwood is the complete opposite of how he comes across on Strictly, we had a great time.

Les Dennis and Connor Mcintyre, and Gareth Gates. I even worked with David Hasselhoff.

I was a massive fan of Nightrider when I was a kid, and if you told that kid one day David Hasselhoff would be in my contacts, y’know?

I’m a Rochdale lad, mixing with this guy from LA it’s ridiculous.

Biggins, Lesley Joseph. I’ve been so lucky.

But the camaraderie I have with Jason, I don’t think I’ve had with anyone else.

We just genuinely get on, we have a good laugh, we socialise off stage when we’re not doing the show, so yeah, it’d be hard to pick one but the fact we’re doing another year together just proves a point that we do get on.

We’re best mates, I want to move in with him, to be honest, he’s just like my hero.

Can you tell us about the show and any hidden magic?

It’s the most magical pantomime ever, it’s got everything, it’s got something for everyone in the family, for the kids, for the grown-ups, the special effects are amazing, the transformation for Cinderella, I can’t give away too much, but that bit is stunning, the scenery, the set, the costumes, it’s just the best pantomime.

I think this is my favourite pantomime, and buttons is my favourite role.

Normally my role is just pretty much to bring the laughs, but with buttons because of the storyline that he’s in love with Cinderella, but he can’t tell her, and then when he does tell her she breaks his heart.

You all know what’s going to happen, everyone knows the story of Cinderella, you’re all like ‘Don’t do this to Buttons… don’t do this to him … she’s done it again!!’  Every year.

And it’s heartbreaking, but it’s just nice for me as a performer, that I then get to do a bit of acting and bring a bit of heart to the pantomime, so that’s my favourite bit.

Cinderella did mention that you go off-script a little bit… can you tell me more about that?

A little bit?! I mean, that script on day one of rehearsals, and then if you saw the final show, it doesn’t look anything like the one on day one.

But that’s the beauty of pantomime, it’s never the same show.

It’s a cliche, and sometimes it’s because of the audience, some audiences we need to control and calm down in Manchester, we love a show in Manchester and then there’s stuff that happens that we have to react to, and we can’t just ignore it, everyone is coming here to join in and that’s what they do here, but we have a great time.

I try to keep the actors on their toes because we do drop in some ad-lib or do things slightly differently. 

Myra doesn’t do the same thing AT ALL, so every time Myra talks, I don’t know what she’s going to say, you just have to react and go with her, and the same with Jason.

We’ve worked together for two years already, so we both know how each other works.

We’re both very different in our styles of comedy but they complement each other well, it’s just great fun.

What is one thing you’d say to look out for in the show?

The special effects will stay the same, it’s magic, and you can’t change anything about that.

I think the transformation scene is just ‘WOW’.

It’s one of those moments everyone talks about during the interval, so it’s pretty special.

I think that’s the moment most people will be talking about. Or, they’ll be saying ‘How funny is buttons!!! How amazing was he! so funny!’ That’s what they’ll say.

Thanks, Ben. Now over to Myra.

Myra DuBois – Wicked Stepmother

What’s your favourite thing about panto?

Well, not just this year, any year! It’s an opportunity to play to a real spectrum of audiences, you’ve got everyone from very young children who are coming, not just panto for the first time, but to the theatre for the first time, and all those people.

Then you’ve got all the Granddads and Grandmas and all those people who have been coming to the panto for years and years, and everything in between, you’ve got families you’ve got friendship groups, but the common theme between all these people is that they’re having a night out as part of their Christmas and you’re a key part of that and that is a very beautiful thing.

You get such a good response from the audience, every time you come out because they want to have a good time cause you’re part of their Christmas celebrations, so they’re up for a laugh from the get-go and the mood in the theatre, especially in that week running up to Christmas, it’s electric.

You play a very evil role in this panto, could you tell us more about it?

Oh yes! I’m the wicked stepmother, I’m a wrong un.

Very jealous of Cinderella, I’m jealous of her youth and beauty, and she’s [The Stepmother] also a social climber because She’s trying to marry her two daughters off to the prince.

NOW! Is she the villain? Or is she the victim of the patriarchy?

Because she has to marry her two daughters off to the prince to maintain some sort of societal position, you know?

See, I think this goes a lot deeper than people think, I mean she’s married to Cinderella’s father, and we don’t see him in the show. 

No spoilers, but it doesn’t look good for him, what have I done to him and why have I done it?

I think they’re the real questions, and that’s what makes this a probing piece of important theatre.

It’s going to be like the Barbie Movie!

What is your favourite thing about the show?

I can answer that question from two positions, one is what’s my favourite thing to do, which is always my entrance because I’m setting up the relationship I’ll have with the audience for the rest of the show, so I shall be standing centre stage with my arms outstretched, washing in their Boos!

I will be absolutely bathing myself in their hatred and resentment and I’ll shoot some of my resentment and hatred back as well, as inspiration for them to get going.

I always enjoy that because then for the rest of the show if I’ve done my job well, whenever they see me, every time they see me, as soon as they start going “Boooo Boo”, I know that I did that bit well!

The second bit is always what I call the story beat. We did Jack and the Beanstalk last year, and in Jack and the Beanstalk, it’s where the cow was sold.

In Snow White, it’s where she bites the apple. In this one, there are two.

One is the ticket to the ball, where I say, “You’re not coming to the ball” and I tear up Cinderella’s ticket to the ball (Interviewer Gasps) See!

You felt it! The second is the end when the slipper fits.

Because what we forget, as people who are former children, I’m a recovering child.

People who are former children forget that those children don’t know the story, they don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve done Cinderella before, and when you’re on stage or in the audience and you’re all looking at that foot, oh that didn’t sound nice did it?

When you’re all looking at Cinderella and the Prince and the shoe pops on, you hear all the little gaps from everyone in that theatre who’s under six years old and it’s the most beautiful thing.

It’s really nice to be in that moment with them.

And just remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.

You’re telling a story that has been told for thousands and thousands of years in many different guises, there’s versions of the Cinderella story that go back to ancient China.

So, we’re telling that story again and their little minds are hearing it for the first time, I think it’s a beautiful transitional moment. That is real panto magic!

What is your favourite thing about Manchester and performing here?

OH, it’s the audience.

I’ve been performing in Manchester at least once a month for about 15 years now, so I’ve never been away from Manchester and I’ve grown with the audiences, the audiences have grown with me. I’ve now got quite a following in this city!

My two biggest audiences are Manchester and London so for Manchester, the thing that differentiates them is that they’re just up for a laugh.

They’re a lot less pretentious, let’s say that… instead of rough.

Less pretentious and it’s good, Manchester has a glorious history of light entertainment and art and culture and things like that.

I think it sounds daft, but we can’t underestimate what having Granada Studios did for Manchester, it made it the Hollywood of the north!

So it’s very Showbiz Manchester.

You feel it, especially at the opera house, there are pictures of Bett Lynch in those corridors dressed as the evil queen in Snow White from 1993, so it’s nice to feel part of that shifting timeline.

Why Cinderella, what made you want to be a part of this Panto?

Well, it’s a popular one amongst kids, I think adults have affection for it because it’s one of the ones that’s been going on for a long time, everyone remembers Cinderella.

There’s a wonderful transformation scene, the story of the protagonist is one that people really care about.

This is what I love about being the Evil Stepmother, I’ve been every villain.

I’ve been the evil queen in Snow White, and Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty, The Giant’s Wife.

The villain in all of the other pantos looks at their motives. Carabosse wants to send a princess to sleep using magic, pricking her finger on a spinning wheel, we know it’s not nice, but we can’t understand how that feels.

Snow White’s stepmother, bites into an apple and turns into an old hag, we’ve never really understood that.

The Giant’s wife kidnapped the cow and took it up to a castle in the clouds.

Cinderella’s stepmother, tells Cinderella that she cannot go to a party that she really wants to go to.

And that’s so relatable.

Everyone has felt left out, everyone has felt like an outcast at some point, and everyone has felt ostracised, and because of that reason, Cinderella is an amazing character for the audience to empathise with and the wicked stepmother and her two daughters in Cinderella are the only villains that do something truly evil.

They make her tear up her ticket to a party she was looking forward to, that she was going to, depending on the version, in her mother’s dress who’s passed away and she says ‘No you’re not going, you can stay here and sweep’ and then they lock her in a closet.

It’s horrible, it’s evil and it can happen. It’s real.

And because of that, it’s heightened. It might not feel as exciting on paper but in terms of human emotion, it’s an easy one to connect with and I think that’s why it does really well.

Everyone has had a moment where they’ve been told they can’t go to something that they really want to, that’s had stakes as well.

This isn’t just going to the cinema to go see a film you’ve wanted to see, this is Cinderella going to the ball, she wants to look beautiful for the evening, every other woman is going to the ball but Cinderella has been told no, and I don’t think there’s a single person or a single child, regardless of gender, that doesn’t know what that feels like.

Everyone’s had a birthday party that they weren’t invited to, and they still remember it.

And that’s why it’s so powerful and why it’s wonderful to play because she is EVIL, she is nasty. It’s a believable evil.

Who haven’t you played and would love to play in a panto?

I think I’ve done them all now! Actually, I haven’t done Aladdin, but you see, the villain in Aladdin is a fella.

I think I’d like to play Aladdin’s mum if that ever comes back. In a more politically correct form, which it does sometimes. I think it will, I think it’s very easy to do a show and not do it racist, just don’t do it racist.

But that’s just me. Just don’t be racist, it’s dead easy. I think I’ve done them all now! I’ve not done Queen Rat from Dick Whittington, sometimes it’s King Rat but I’d be Queen Rat.

I’d quite like to do Queen Rat someday, I just like wearing fur.

Next up, is our Fairy Godmother, Wendy.

Wendy Mae Brown – Fairy Godmother

Firstly, how are you?

I came up from London last night, it’s been a long day! Lots of costume changes but great laughs, we’ve just laughed all day long with Jason Manford, and the whole crew is fabulous.

How does it feel to be back in panto land?

This is my fourth panto; I just love the whole thing! I love Christmas panto, I’m very lucky as they just tend to ask me to do them, so I don’t have to audition, it’s just great.

It just ushers Christmas in, and you can’t help but feel Christmassy, you don’t see much of Christmas as you have the one day off and you’re back for Boxing Day, but it’s just great! I haven’t done Cinderella before so I’m looking forward to this one.

What’s your favourite thing about panto land?

Oh, the children! Their faces when they see the costume changes and we did Aladdin last year and their little faces when the magic carpet flew!

They’re just so excited, and for a lot of them, it’s going to be their first time in the theatre. I

just love knowing that there’s somebody out there thinking ‘I want to do this’

You play the Fairy Godmother, but if you could grant yourself one wish what would it be?

To win the lotto! I was going to say to lose weight, or suddenly wake up and be three stone lighter, but I could do that with the lotto money couldn’t I, I could just get plastic surgery!

What are you looking forward to most about performing in Manchester?

I’m from London, I’m looking forward to performing in Manchester because I always have a good time here.

I’ve done quite a few musicals here, Ghost and Waitress, so it’s like coming home.

I’ve got a few friends here and it’ll be useful because I won’t be able to go home for Christmas so I’m going to be meeting up with people on Christmas day, people have offered to cook me lunch and all sorts of things.

I love Manchester, I do!

Is there any panto magic you can tell us about, any backstage or on-stage magic?

Yes, but I’d have to kill you! That’s all there is to it. I don’t know what I’m doing yet but I can imagine the carriage and the horses, and her dress is going to be marvellous to see, I’m as much a fan as anyone else, I’m dying to see how it’s all going to happen!

How excited are you? you get to be a fairy godmother on stage!

I know! I’m usually quite a wicked person, I’ve been the evil queen, I’ve done all sorts of things but this time I’m being very good.

There’s a sort of good and evil thing going on with me and Myra, it’s going to be hilarious. I’m really looking forward to it!

And lastly, Cinders.

Sarah Vaughan – Cinderella

How does it feel to be a professional princess?

The best feeling ever! I’m so lucky, and I’m slightly older than some Cinderellas can be, so I just feel extra lucky. I think every little kid, definitely me, I was a very shy child, loved princesses, love -love princesses I never would have thought I’d get to be one, so it’s amazing.

This is a role you’ve done before; how do you feel about coming back to it?

I love it!  I absolutely love it, I probably associate more with Cinderella than myself these days, but yeah, I absolutely love it, and the costumes and everything. It’s just all gorgeous, things you never get to wear in real life.

What’s the best thing about being Cinderella?

Do you know what it is? It’s the little kids! 

The ones that come that also love Cinderella, and then you’ve got all these amazing little friends in the audience that are just straight away your friend, that’s my favourite thing.

Have you performed in Manchester before? What are you looking forward to?

I’ve never even been to Manchester before, until today!

Well, one thing I’m really looking forward to that isn’t even about panto, is the Christmas markets!

I’ve been told they’re amazing. I’m a massive Christmas person so I’m very excited, the people are so friendly, it’s not even been 24 hours I’ve been here but people are so nice, and I’ve been told by everyone that’s done it is that the audience is amazing up here so that’s very exciting.

What is your favourite thing about panto land?

You’re in like a little family bubble of people you may not have known before, this year I only know the musical director, but you just automatically like straight away, it’s already like a little family that you’re then having a lovely time with, over the best time of year and it’s amazing, it’s great.

How is it being away from your family over the Christmas period, are they coming to see the show?

Yes! So, my family live in Dublin, and my birthday happens over panto season so they usually fly over, and we can have a birthday and fake Christmas and then I get to have an extra fake Christmas when I go back and visit them because I live in London now, so I get loads of Christmases – It’s great.

Is there any hidden magic you can tell us about?

Gasp! There’s loads of hidden magic but I can’t tell you most of it. I do have a very magical dress!

That you may get to see if you come and see us in the show, that’s my favourite thing and it’s very magical and it’s worth coming to see!

What is it that one thing that keeps you coming back every single year?

I think it’s so interactive with the audience, so every show is different i think people are always like ‘Do you not get tired during panto?’ 

I think there is, well I guess you would but you don’t feel tired, everything is new and different and fun, it’s just fun, that’s the only word that I can put with panto, is that everything is just fun.

I’ve been warned, that these two lovely people Ben and Jason, that they like to go slightly off script sometimes, so that keeps you on your toes, it never gets boring, it’s great.

You are Cinderella, you do have an evil stepmother, how is it working with the lovely Myra, but with her being evil?

I think Myra is just amazing, so I have to now remember that she is my evil stepmother because she’s just so funny, so so funny, so yeah you have to separate those two things, she’s just brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

How is it working with Jason Manford as your Prince Charming?

He’s just so nice! He’s just so nice and so normal and so lovely, and a bit Irish I think? He’s just the loveliest, funniest person in everyday life so it’s great.

What do you want people to know about Cinderella before they come to see you?

They’re going to have lots of magic, lots of laughs because we’ve got three amazing comedians leading us, there are lots of amazing special effects that are ridiculously amazing and every time I get to be a part of them I’m like ‘oh my god I get to do this again today, twice!’ and I think this Cinderella stands up for herself a little bit more, so yes she’ll get pushed around because that’s part of the story but she’s a strong Cinderella who can stand up for herself!

Tickets to see Cinderella at The Opera House

You can get tickets to see Cinderella at The Opera House by clicking here.

Where: Opera House Manchester

When: Sat 14th December 2024 – Sun 5th of Jan 2025