As part of our Young Critics Collective programme, Leah Hudson reviewed Cinderella Ice Cream Seller, a musical retelling of a fairy tale classic by Little Seeds Music.
Perfect for children and families alike, Cinderella Ice Cream Seller offers a delightful blend of storytelling, stunning live music, and theatrical magic that will capture your heart and tickle your taste buds.
Young Critics are an imaginative collective of students that value collaboration and innovation. Together, they review and help shape future theatre programming.
Cinderella Ice Cream Seller is a wonderfully fun musical spin-off of a classic fairy tale that we all know and love. Little Seeds Music creates media of all kinds for children and families, with Cinderella Ice Cream seller being one of their music-led theatre performances, perfect for young children. The company’s mission to keep the arts alive is important to them, especially the quality of performance they bring to the stage and the projects they offer across the country, which provide young people with opportunities to develop their song writing and composition skills.
They bring together brilliantly the two things that are hard not to love, ice cream and Cinderella, through amazing songs and storytelling. The musical follows two ice cream sellers, Talvi and Caldwell, played by David Gibb and Lauren Harthorpe, who tell the story of how Cinderella and the prince became partners and opened up their ice cream shops through songs played live on stage.
The piano and guitars are worked extremely well into the already incredible set, with its fun colours and props that really add to the ice cream parlour feel. The piano blends right in, acting as an instrument and a countertop in the parlour. The songs being sung and played live on stage add a uniqueness to the performance that isn’t often found in children’s shows. David Gibb, the writer and composer of the musical, strives to provide children and families with great quality musical experiences that everyone can enjoy, which he definitely does with Cinderella Ice Cream Seller. Not only are the songs themselves brilliant and fun, getting all of the children and families involved, but David and Lauren’s voices are just incredible to listen to.
Lakeside Arts really is a great place for a performance such as this one, situated in Highfields Park, where the young children can watch the high-energy show and then play outside in the sun. The musical is perfect for the younger children, their parents and families. The songs get everyone, yes, even the adults, involved as they shout out from the audience and dance along to the moves demonstrated on stage. The humour targeted towards the children was not lost on the parents and families either, as everyone in the audience was laughing. Young kids are easily distracted, but David and Lauren keep them engaged by getting them involved with shouting out answers and dancing along with them, which many did.
As Talvi and Caldwell tell this fun new story of Cinderella, they act out the different characters like Cinderella’s mean stepsisters and the prince using different hats. Initially, I believed this might be a little too difficult for the younger children to follow. David and Lauren did it brilliantly. The changing of characters was funny and very well done; it was easy to follow and a great, unique way to tell the story. Although at one point it appeared that David was struggling to find the light at the front of the stage, making it difficult to see him properly, he easily made it work and moved around until he was able to find it again.
Cinderella Ice Cream Seller is not just about Cinderella and her ice cream parlours; it’s also about two people finding themselves and becoming great friends. Although Talvi and Caldwell start as complete opposites and bicker constantly, through the storytelling and fun songs, they learn about themselves and each other and become great friends about to embark on their adventure. The whole energetic and fun feel of the performance is only enhanced by the heart-warming progression of the two characters’ unlikely friendship, making this a perfect performance for everyone.
