As a grown up with a profound love for children’s theatre, I find the Court Theatre’s school holiday shows to be a regular treat. Cinderella Meets Aladdin is a particularly strong and original offering. 

Aladdin (Dan Allan) has been spending a lot of time alone and it’s starting to get to him. Thanks to the machinations of a wily, clownish Genie (David Ladderman), he is magically paired up with Cinderella (Kathleen Burns), who would much rather be whisked back to the Fairy Tale Kingdom so that she and her beloved prince can have their Happily Ever After. This is all to the chagrin of the Fairy Godmother (Allan, again, now all Nanny McPhee meets Downton Abbey), who decides to come and sort it all out and give whomever is responsible a good stern talking to. Hijinks ensue, magic goes awry, friendships are forged, and it all works out – but not in the way that you might expect. 

Allan, Burns and Ladderman all provide commanding performances, although some of the comedy accents are a bit slippery at times. Quick character changes are undertaken with precision, and each performer establishes a strong rapport with the young audience, despite the size of the crowd. 

Scott Koorey’s witty and inventive script is a delightful mashup of the two stories. It provides enough familiar elements to give the young audience a good narrative foothold, and then it spins off into territory that, while absurd and whimsical, still sits well within the logic of the story world. A high point is the battle of wits and magic between the Genie and the Fairy Godmother and its rather unexpected outcome.

Dan Bain’s lively direction is dynamic and entertaining. While the play features a smattering of the expected sight gags, Bain also offers some lovely visual moments, such as the connections formed between Cinderella and Aladdin through movement and gesture at the play’s opening. There is a lot going on in this show but it is tied together cleanly, and it’s really nice to come to a play like this and be genuinely surprised.

This show is also particularly well designed. Sometimes I find the adaptation of main stage sets for the Court’s children’s shows to be a big square peg / round hole situation, but in this instance Julian Southgate’s set for The Hound of the Baskervilles suits the show beautifully. In particular, the rich golds and lush purples of that set’s faux Victorian proscenium arch contribute a lovely storybook quality to the proceedings, and the augmentations – notably, a large magic lamp – along with the sound (Andrew Todd), properties (Anneke Bester) and lighting design (Sean Hawkins) all work to create a coherent and engaging world. The costumes, by Stella Gardner, are a beautiful addition and, when needed, they are just the right amount of ridiculous.  

Ahead of the performance an energetic wee blonde girl informs me spontaneously about how excited she is to be seeing the show, and throughout the piece kids are bouncing around, loudly offering the characters advice and assistance, cheering and shrieking, and (occasionally) hiding behind the seats in front of them in fear and delight. At times the enthusiastic roar of the nearly full house overwhelms the voices of the players, but it’s a very good indication that the target audience is being well catered to. This grown up liked it a lot too. 

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