Cinderella

Approx. Run Time
Act 1: 70 minutes and Act 2: 50 minutes.

Plot Summary
Some years ago a girl was born to a sweet young woman, but sadly only the baby survived. The husband, poor Baron Hardup, who didn’t have much money at all, was left to raise the child alone. But as time passed, he realised that they could still be happy without being hugely rich, and he gave her the love and education that Cinderella’s mother would have wished. The years went by until one day she was all grown up, a vibrant, beautiful, and clever young woman, and a credit to her father’s efforts.  They had a simple but happy life, until one day all that changed. The Widow Tremaine came to town, she decided that she wanted to be a Baroness and told Baron Hardup he should marry her. The Baron doesn’t like to argue and soon found himself with a new wife and two new step-daughters, and Cinderella’s life became a lot more complicated and considerably harder. The Prince is throwing a ball to find a suitable wife, could this be Cinderella's chance to find true love and escape this life of drudgery?

Cast of Characters

Cinderella (Female): Intelligent, attractive, kind, all she desires is a life without drudgery and if she can find romance along the way, so much the better. Loves her father but realises he hasn’t the inner strength to protect her or himself. Admired by Buttons but his love is unrequited, she probably has an inkling that he has a crush on her but doesn’t realise the extent of his feelings. She accepts her fate but  longs (and hopes) for change. Able to sing well and dance quite well.
Cinderella has her own theme tune, "Sutherland Falls" by Luke Dalton. If you wish to use this in your pantomime, there would be a small royalty fee for each performance.  Please contact me if you would like to be provided with a sample track. 
 

Prince Charming (Male/Female): Comedic timing needed. The Prince is not terribly understanding of others around him, but has a good heart. He’s been a playboy for far too long and has reached the age where he needs to get more serious about life.(You can’t go to raves forever).
 

Buttons (Male/Female): Strong comedic role with good timing required. Jack of all trades and friend to Cinderella. Has a crush on her but in his heart of hearts doesn’t believe she’ll ever see him in the same way.
 

Baron Hardup (Male): Cinderella’s father. Loving and kindly but very passive to the point of weakness. He raised Cinderella single handedly after his wife died in childbirth but caved quite easily after the Widow Tremaine told him to marry her.
 

Ugly Step-sisters, Harpic and Dettol (Male/Female): Almost cartoonish. Man-hungry dames in duplicate! Must have good sense of comedy timing. The duo we love to hate. Selfish, vindictive, lazy and chavy, very one dimensional. All they want is a lazy life where they can parasitize some wealthy noble and not have to lift a finger except to ‘beautify’ themselves.

Fairy Godmother (Female): Obviously a magical being, but very down to earth, confident, thoroughly likeable. Comic timing essential. She wants to assist her Godchild to achieve her destiny, escape from drudgery and find true love. 

Anna Prentice (Female): Dippy trainee to the Fairy Godmother, never learned any magic, just wants to prove herself and earn her wings. Not the brightest perhaps, but heart of gold.  Proves herself in one of the final scenes.

Dandini (Male, possibly Female with slight adjustments to script): Paid companion of The Prince but slightly more in touch with reality. Master of the art of eye rolling whenever the Prince makes a wildly unreasonable request. Dandini enjoys the trappings of courtly life and quite enjoys the interesting world of being a prince’s companion.
 

Step-Mother (Male/Female): The baddie. Cinderella’s (and to some extent the Baron’s) nemesis. Frustrated by her life and by the shortcomings of her daughters, she desires wealth and power. She has remarried only to put herself in a position where she can manipulate wealthy men into marrying her daughters.

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Wensley (Male/Female):  Sweet and slightly dippy, somewhat naïve, lovable mouse. Slightly more clued-up than Dale but still a lovable character. Comedic figure, best friends with Dale (maybe slightly more of a straight man to Dale’s clown), and also fond of Cinderella. Cheese-obsessed.

Dale (Male/Female): A mouse. Comedic figure, best friends with Wensley (comedian to Wensley’s straight man), and also fond of Cinderella. It turns out in the end that Dale is not quite the one-dimensional cheese-obsessed character that Wensley is!

King: Typical Dad, a bit worried that his son is not getting any younger and that if he doesn’t pull his finger out, he’s never going to amount to anything (or in this case never going to take his Princely duties seriously, settle down and get married).
 

Queen: Basically has the same wants as the King. She’s a bit worried that her son is gadding about too much and is running out of time to take on his Princely duties, i.e. get married and prepare to be King.
 

Delores (Female): The long-suffering village girl, Seller of drinks and Buttons’ love interest. She makes it very obvious what she wants in life – Buttons! But apparently not obvious enough for him to realise!
 

Courtiers/Village Folk: Able to sing a little, and dance?.

Skeleton: Probably chosen from among courtiers? Haunted woods scene only.

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CINDERELLA SAMPLE SCRIPT

Click the PDF file to see a sample of the script from Scenes 2 and 3.