Julian Clary unleashes a tsunami of smut

Cinderella review at the London Palladium

The Guardian - Michael Billington - December 15th 2016

With Paul O’Grady and Julian Clary in the leads, pantomime pitches camp at the Palladium for the first time since 1987. You might say it overpitches it since this is, without doubt, the filthiest panto I’ve ever seen. It’s less a show for all the family than for highly sophisticated grownups.

Clary sets the tone as a Dandini who declares himself the prince’s right-hand man and who appears in more startling creations than you will find in the book of Genesis. He also dispenses a series of double-entendres with feline grace. Some are genuinely funny. “Did you find the gypsies’ camp?” he is asked. “One or two of them, yes,” he suavely replies.

Many, however, are just outrageous, as when he recalls his circus days as a human cannonball: “I used to shoot over the ringmaster’s back.”

Gloriously excessive

Cinderella review at the London Palladium

The Stage - by Paul Vale - December 15th 2016

In an array of increasingly outrageous, feather-trimmed costumes, [Julian Clary] commands practically every scene, constantly breaking the fourth wall and consistently raising the roof with desperately near-the-knuckle innuendo. Usually comically aloof, he is also game for a laugh, taking to the skies in a flying Vespa or joining in the familiar chaos of the ubiquitous pantomime song.