Cinderella: Edinburgh’s big panto is full of glitz, glamour and Scottish humour

Allan Stewart and Grant Stott
Allan Stewart and Grant Stott - Douglas Robertson

Scotland is rightly proud of its pantomime tradition. Although Scottish pantos are recognisably similar to their English counterparts in many ways, they remain rooted in a distinctly Scottish brand of music hall comedy.

Nowhere is that truer than in Edinburgh’s big pantomime in which longstanding dame Allan Stewart follows in the high-heeled footsteps of such greats as Stanley Baxter. The actor has – since making his King’s Theatre, Edinburgh pantomime debut in 1989 – established himself as the undisputed darling of Christmas audiences in Scotland’s capital.

This year he leads the line once again, playing the fairy godmother in Cinderella. Now in his mid-70s, the irrepressible Stewart arrives on stage vertically, flown down on wires. It isn’t long until he has the crowd in the palm of his hand with his vaudevillian line in singing, dancing and risqué comedy.

The show is staged (as it has been since 2022) in the handsome Festival Theatre while its natural home, the King’s, continues to undergo vital redevelopment work. Like most of the UK’s big stage pantos, the show is presented by festive theatre juggernaut Crossroads Pantomimes.

It’s to the credit of the huge production company that it understands the crucial importance of tailoring the pantomime formula for local audiences. In the case of the Festival Theatre show – which is set in the town of Royal Auchtereekie (after Edinburgh’s long-established nickname “Auld Reekie”) – that means that Stewart’s very Scottish comedy is complemented by the marvellously local antics of Edinburgh’s own Grant Stott.

Cinderella at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Cinderella at Festival Theatre, Edinburgh - Douglas Robertson

Stott has always had great fun with the conflicting football loyalties of his home city audience, playing up his affiliation to Hibernian FC. This year, his cross-dressed baddie – wicked stepmother Baroness Hibernia Fortuna, mother to Cinderella’s nasty stepsisters Vindicta and Manipulata – takes the soccer-related comedy to another level.

When we first encounter the plotting Baroness, she arrives in a limousine emblazoned with the Hibs club crest. Stott’s gloriously attired baddie winds up the audience tremendously when she sings the number Yes Sir, You Can Boo Me to the tune of current Scottish football anthem , and 1977 pop hit, Yes Sir, I Can Boogie.

Stewart and Stott are a tremendous double act, and one that benefits hugely from the support of their hilarious and energetic foil Jordan Young (in the panto daftie role of Buttons). Although the all-singing, all-dancing show has all of the glitz, glamour and spectacle (including flying mechanised horses) that one would expect of a big pantomime production, the grit on the comedic oyster comes when the lead actors go off-script.

Fluffed lines and wilful ad libbing by the three headliners provide a strand of comedy that is, arguably, funnier than anything in the script. There are excellent comic performances, too, from Clare Gray and Gail Watson as the dreadful stepsisters.

The beautifully-voiced Amber Sylvia Edwards impresses mightily as Cinderella opposite the talented Will Callan’s sparkle-toothed Prince Charming. All-in-all it makes for a pitch-perfect pantomime, oh yes it does!

Until December 31. Tickets: 0131 529 6000; capitaltheatres.com