Ballinrobe Community School students sparkle with Cinderella

NEW year, new show, new talent, and another cracking musical from Ballinrobe Community School.

Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a mammoth of a show. But it was safe in the hands of Ballinrobe Community School, who continue to set the bar for singing, choreography, visuals, and sheer raw talent across Mayo, if not the entire western region.

Guided by a super-human production duo of Fionnuala Dooley (Director and Choreographer) and Elaine Kennedy (Assistant Director and Musical Director), BCS took this fairytale mammoth and transformed it into an evening of colour, harmony, fun, frolics and joie de vivre - exactly what you want from a Disney film.

^{Students from Ballinrobe Community School pictured during their 2024 production of Cinderella} 

We’re guessing you already know the plot. But there was much more to this than the glass slippers and the leading lady, played by the excellent Derinn Kennedy.

Indeed, there is so much to say about the quality of this production that it will scarcely fit into one concise review.

It began at bang-on eight o’clock and ended with a gymnasium full of giggles and proud smiling parents at 10.45 pm. This show was quite long, but it never felt long.

Because when a show is acted with the right amount of pace, humour, and sensitivity, sung to the heavens and danced this well, you simply don’t want it to end.

Whatever about the luscious, crystal clear chorus and super solos, you simply couldn’t take your eyes off this show.

The glistening, polychromatic costumes, makeup, wigs, lighting and visuals were everything that you’d want from a Disney-inspired show - the masquerade ball was one highlight in this department.

Powered by veteran ivory-tickler John Flatley, the three-man orchestra kept things lively and playful throughout. But it was the cast that brought this show to life.

Each of the all-star leading cast was more than deserving of their bows. Oisín Heskin looked the part and played the part of good-hearted Prince Topher alongside his Cinderella, Derinn Kennedy, an excellent singer and actor.

She was hassled throughout the night by the stepsisters, Chloe Webb (Marie) and Rachel Gallagher (Gabrielle) - who were so good and so funny that you really couldn’t hate them - and the wicked Madame, Aoibhínn Cummins, who excelled as the chief antagonist.

^{Pictured (left to right) during Ballinrobe Community School's 2024 production of Cinderella are Derinn Kennedy (Cinderella), Rachel Gallagher (Gabrielle), Aoibhínn Cummins (Madame) and Chloe Webb (Charlotte)}

Vilnius Vainoras seemed to love every moment playing the pompous and conniving Sebastian, as did Rory Deveraux as the ambitious Jean Michel and Shane Horan as the loud-and-proud Lord Pinkleton.

Cinderella’s fairy godmother, Marie, was played by Rosín Webb, a fine actor who filled the hall with her sumptuous soprano voice.

The acting was impressive, but the direction was equally so. Not one line was rushed, not one scene dragged, and not one gag went over the audience’s heads - and there were plenty of them, each one funnier than the next!

The stage crew ran a tight ship and deserve enormous credit for running a show with so many moving parts and scene changes better described as scene transformations.

We can’t conclude without again acknowledging Fionnuala Dooley, who had the students doing more lifts than you’d see at a wrestling match and enough flips, somersaults and wall runs than you’d see in a Mario Bros game.

Absolutely superb stuff - yet again - from the boys and girls of Ballinrobe Community School.

Ballinrobe Community School’s production of Cinderella runs from Thursday, December 12 to Friday, December 13 in Ballinrobe Community School’s gymnasium from 8 pm nightly.