Sinderella

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For the album, see The Sonics.

Sinderella is a pantomime created by Jim Davidson and Bryan Blackburn. It is a sexually explicit derivative of Cinderella.

Conceived in

flatulent
. This version was mounted between 1993 and 1996 at various British theatres, and received largely negative critical reception.

Sinderella was later reworked and toured in 1997 and 2004 as Sinderella Comes Again. The 1997 tour omitted Drake but featured Deborah Corrigan as "Fairy Mark II" and the Oddballs as CIC, Dirty Mac, and M.C. Cucumber, while the 2004 tour omitted Corrigan but featured a voice performance from a now stricken Drake, and was greeted with positive reception. A further attempt at a sequel in 2015, Sinderella 2: A Scottish Romp, was cancelled mid-run after Davidson was accused of unacceptable behaviour.

Background and conception

Jim Davidson first came to public attention after coming second in

UK Singles Chart;[8] he then played Jim London in Up the Elephant and Round the Castle between 1983 and 1985[9] and in Home James! between 1987 and 1990.[10]

In 1990, Charlie Drake was performing in

ugly sister Annie Hardup[14] and Alexis the stepdaughter respectively[13] and Charlie Drake, who played Baron Hardon,[15] had previously played Baron Hard-up. Davidson co-wrote the play with Bryan Blackburn, who had been writing for Cinderella productions since 1971,[13] and had written English lyrics for "Welcome Home", "Don't Stay Away Too Long", "Rainbow", and "Hey Mr. Music Man", which had been UK Top 20 hits for Dianne's group Peters and Lee.[16]

Performances and reception

1993–1996: Sinderella

The play was

flatulent and left one scene mid-fart using a jet pack.[21]

Reviewing a March 1994 showing, Ben Thompson of

Shakespearian heights of bawdiness", and further noted that he was struck by "the naked flesh on display" being "almost all male" and wished that "Davidson's attitude to race was similarly enlightened".[20] Later that month, the same publication's Mark Wareham was even less complimentary, saying that "old Nick Nick could not have produced a more down-market production had a think-tank from Big Break pooled their collective talents", and opined that Davidson was the only cast member not cringing.[21]

In December, the show transferred to the Opera House Theatre, Blackpool, and then in January 1995, the show went on a 16-week tour of Great Britain.[14] A VHS performance was released that year, using the pull quote "sexist, naughty, and totally outrageous" from a review in The Sun superimposed over a picture of a woman in front of Buttons leaning over and pulling up her skirt to reveal her stockings, suspenders, and bare buttocks; reviewing a "seven-minute clip of the show" he had found online, Josh Widdicombe expressed his relief that it was "only seven minutes", and described what he had seen as "mainly a mix of jokes about the performers being pissed and blue puns, but not nearly as good as that makes it sound".[18] This peaked at No. 17 on the UK Video Charts in October 1995 and June 1996, 34 weeks apart.[22]

The show then ran in December 1996 at Bristol Hippodrome.[14] The same month, The Independent's Matthew Sweet wrote that the adult pantomime was an "atrocity", and that both Sinderella and Pussy in Boots,[23] Mike Reid's 1994 direct-to-video adult pantomime with John Altman and Barbara Windsor[24] that had been described by the publication in December 1994 as "blue stand up masquerading as panto"[25] and had entered the UK Video Chart that year at No. 23,[26] had "besmirched" the genre's reputation, further describing Sinderella as "a lowest-common-denominator smutfest".[23]

1997–2007: Sinderella Comes Again

In January 1997, the show transferred to the Shaftesbury Theatre in London as Sinderella Comes Again, which lacked Drake but featured the characters CIC, Dirty Mac, and M.C. Cucumber, played by the Oddballs, and the character "Fairy Mark II", played by Deborah Corrigan,[14] who Davidson would later date;[27] their affair would cause the dissolution of his fourth marriage.[28] The show then went on tour until May,[14] which included two weeks between 22 April and 3 May at the Shaftesbury Theatre.[13] Davidson would later perform a second adult pantomime, Boobs in the Wood, which was released on video in 1999,[18] and peaked at No. 41 on the UK Video Chart.[29]

In 2004, Davidson would revive Sinderella Comes Again, which featured the Oddballs and all of the original Sinderella cast,[30] including Drake as "the voice of the late Baron Hard-On" [sic];[31] Drake was in poor health in 2004,[15] and the following year the Richmond and Twickenham Times reported that he was living in Brinsworth House.[32] Jess Conrad would later regale his experience of working with Drake for the 2021 book Forgotten Heroes of Comedy: An Encyclopedia of the Comedy Underdog.[15] According to the show's website, the show ran between 1 March[33] and 24 April 2004, and visited Orchard Theatre, Dartford, Royal & Derngate, Theatre Royal, Nottingham, Birmingham Hippodrome, Cliffs Pavilion, Mayflower Theatre, Regent Theatre, Ipswich, and New Wimbledon Theatre.[34]

David Jackson of the BBC was positive about their Nottingham performance, saying that "a clever script (vaguely stuck to throughout!), great local ad-libbing from [Davidson], and a funny mix of supporting actors [...] made for an entertaining evening",[35] although Theatre Royal later revised its programming policy to exclude adult pantomimes.[31] Reviewing a Birmingham performance, the BBC's theatre correspondent Andy Knowles found the performance "laddish, sexist, crude, lewd", "downright rude", and "extremely funny", and singled out the "ultra-sweet, ultra-demure Dianne Lee" for praise, saying that "her sugary smile and embarrassing innocence provide the perfect foil for every sexual innuendo going".[30] A performance would later be released for home video, making No. 56 on the UK DVD Chart and No. 52 on the UK Video Chart.[36] In 2007, Universal Pictures released Jim Davidson: Comedy Collection, which rounded up Sinderella, Boobs in the Wood, and Sinderella Comes Again.[37]

2012–2015: A Scottish Romp

In 2012, having married his fifth wife three years earlier,

Deone Robertson and Nicola Park.[40] The show was advertised with posters bearing a picture of him smirking while holding the legs of a grimacing woman half his age; people used Sharpies to annotate the poster next to his stage door, writing "racist" and "cunt" on his forehead. Liam Turbett of Vice reckoned that the poster's "gratuitous, Carry-On style sexism" "could keep an undergrad gender studies class occupied for months".[39]

The play's plot focused on Sinderella's inability to attend a

menstruating, contained scenes of Sinderella attempting to purchase tampons from a shopkeeper with an Asian accent played by Davidson, and made numerous references to shortbread, Braveheart, Davidson's Operation Yewtree arrest, the nearby pub, and Linford Christie. Turbett noted that the "show would have been bad enough had it been performed competently, but it continually veered into oblivion as no one could quite remember their lines" and that this "seemed ostensibly to be half the fun", before praising the show's backing dancers for being "professional enough to [...] actually complete their choreographed dancing" despite Davidson's "leering eyes" and "nod-and-wink homophobia".[39]

The show was booked to run between 11 and 21 March.[41] During the 19 March showing,[42] having been told not to drink on site by the pub's manager after he found two empty wine bottles in his dressing room, and having been further aggravated after his wife was barred from entering the stage door, Davidson spent the show's intermission at the Atholl Arms[40] in Renfield Street still wearing his costume,[42] drunk more alcohol than usual, and whinged on stage that the audience were able to drink alcohol on site while he and the rest of the cast were not.[40] The day after, the Pavilion posted on their Facebook page that they had cancelled the 20 and 21 March showings, citing "health and safety and staffing concerns"; the Pavilion's manager blamed Davidson's "entirely unacceptable" behaviour,[42] and several staff members variously accused him of reacting to his wife's stage door non-admission by kicking it open and leaving in a strop,[40] of using his Atholl Arms trip to criticise the Pavilion, its staff, Sinderella, and Glasgow audiences, and of using his post-intermission return to the Pavilion to berate both the manager and a female member of staff. Davidson denied being "abusive to anybody", saying that the pantomime's cancellation was a combination of poor ticket sales and the manager asserting power,[42] and stated that the show would never be performed again.[39]

References

  1. ^ a b "Jim Davidson: The 'unacceptable' face of comedy emerged this week". The Independent. 1 February 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  3. ISSN 0140-0460
    . Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  4. ^ "Jim Davidson banned". Kent Online. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Jim Davidson on why the show must go on". Bournemouth Echo. 22 April 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  6. ^ "Jim Davidson says he'd love to do Top Gear if he wasn't 'always banned from driving'". The Independent. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  7. ISBN 978-1-5013-6843-1
    .
  8. ^ Bennett, Steve. "The 12 Plays Of Christmas : Features 2015 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  9. ^ "Up The Elephant And Round The Castle - ITV1 Sitcom". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  10. ^ "Home James! - ITV1 Sitcom". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  11. ^ a b "Meet the Suffolk musician who has played key role in pantomimes for 30 years". Suffolk News. 1 January 2022. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  12. ^ "Pantomime Archive Hall of fame Jim Davidson". pantoarchive. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  13. ^ a b c d e f "Cinderella the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in London - theatre information and tickets". Thisistheatre.com. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g "Pantomime, Burlesque, and Children's Drama | Robbins Library Digital Projects". d.lib.rochester.edu. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78352-919-3
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-85712-360-2
    .
  17. ^ a b "Comic Jim Davidson, playing Buttons, gives a lift to co-star Diane Lee at the launch in Ealing of his own production of the X-rated pantomime Sinderella which opens on 4 February at Ipswich Regent, Suffolk, England". TopFoto. 18 January 1993. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  18. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78870-437-3
    .
  19. ^ Bennett, Steve. "Jim Davidson 'heading for divorce No5' : Punching Up 2023 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  20. ^ a b "COMEDY / Jim's vehicle's a rotten pumpkin". The Independent. 13 March 1994. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  21. ^ a b "COMEDY / Positions on the slide rule: Or is it? Mark Wareham on Ben". The Independent. 26 March 1994. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  22. ^ "JIM DAVIDSON - SINDERELLA LIVE". Official Charts. 6 January 1996. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  23. ^ a b "blue jokes, pink knickers: my night as a panto dame". The Independent. 22 December 1996. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  24. ^ Laws, Roz (21 December 2015). "EastEnders' John Altman lied about his age to get Nasty Nick part". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  25. ^ "You want a successful comedy video, you need an 18 certificate: Mark". The Independent. 12 December 1994. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  26. The Official Charts Company
    . Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  27. ^ Smith, Laura (12 April 2012). "Model attacked after fare row". Evening Standard. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  28. ^ a b Bennett, Steve. "Jim Davidson 'heading for divorce No5' : Punching Up 2023 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  29. ^ "JIM DAVIDSON - BOOBS IN THE WOOD - LIVE". Official Charts. 27 November 1999. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  30. ^ a b "BBC - Birmingham Stage - Sinderella". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  31. ^ a b "Our Theatre Royal Nottingham". ourtheatreroyal.org. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  32. ^ "A paradise for old pros". Richmond and Twickenham Times. 8 April 2005. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  33. ^ ":: Sinderella 2 :: Jim Davidson at The Orchard Theatre in Dartford". 5 January 2005. Archived from the original on 5 January 2005. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  34. ^ ":: Sinderella 2 :: Jim Davidson at The New Wimbledon Theatre in Wimbledon". 4 January 2005. Archived from the original on 4 January 2005. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  35. ^ "BBC - Nottingham Stage - Sinderella review". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  36. The Official Charts Company
    . Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  37. ^ Guide, British Comedy. "Jim Davidson - Comedy Collection DVD". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  38. ^ "SINDERELLA - A Scottish Romp". The Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow. 19 July 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  39. ^ a b c d e Turbett, Liam (24 March 2015). "A Comedian's 'Scottish Romp' Got Canceled Due to His 'Unacceptable' Behavior". Vice. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  40. ^ a b c d Bennett, Steve. "Jim Davidson shows pulled after fracas : News 2015 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  41. ^ "Win tickets to see Sinderella2". Central Fife Times. 4 March 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  42. ^ a b c d "Raunchy panto axed over health and safety fears". Glasgow Times. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
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