The makers of Cinderella and the Matzo Ball deserve all the praise (naches) for conjuring up something so blissfully unapologetic at a time of Jewish erasure in the arts
December 16, 2025 17:23
Tell me of another show in London boasting a rhyming couplet that teams “moolah” with “mechula”.
Pantomime is famously the only UK art form that does not travel, with non-Brits baffled by its idiosyncrasies (oh yes, they are!). But for the third time writer Nick Cassenbaum and director Abigail Anderson have managed to take the Christmas staple across the religious divide.
Indeed, the JW3 panto is so unashamedly Jewish that the question is: will anyone outside the faith have a chance of getting it? This was evidently on the minds of the production team, who have provided a glossary, from Abra-ka-babka to Vorsht.
The audience is transported to Yeast Finchley, where Cinderella (Talia Pick) is slaving away at Breadzinsky’s bakery. At the same time, Ronan Quiniou’s Prince Charming (formerly Charminski) is planning a ball – a Matzo Ball, noch – to find a Miss Right to save his Kosher Kingdom. Talya Soames is Buttons, a worker for Chopped Deliveroo whose real name is Moishe Pipik (pipik being belly button in Yiddish, geddit?).
But the show is persistently stolen by the snarling step-sisters. Rosie Yadid is Milchig, a New Yoiker with an “I Love It Milky” T-shirt and Libby Liburd – donning Lady Gaga meat dress-style leggings – plays the ghastly Fleishig. There are enough bread-based puns to give even a glutton for gluten indigestion. But it is all leavened with a wit and Jewish joy that is almost impossible to resist. I found myself sandwiched between an eight-month-old and an 80-year-old – both gurgling with delight.
There is also a dizzying array of cultural references to keep all ages engaged: the 2025 Jet2holidays and 6-7 memes for the kids, Instagram “thirst traps” for the teens and mentions of EastEnders’ Dr Legg and the real East End’s Tubby Isaacs for those with longer memories. Admittedly, some lines feel as stale as Breadzinsky’s loaves. Jokes about Philip Green’s tax affairs and John Travolta’s mispronunciations are at least a decade past their sell-by date. Another Jewish show may have riffed on Nigel Farage or BBC bias, but one senses Cassenbaum was keen to keep it light, at the expense of exploiting more topical fare.
The three-piece band, including accordion and trumpet-playing musical director Josh Middleton, have the production bouncing from the off, with klezmer-style bursts of Carole King’s Loco-Motion and Cabaret’s Willkommen. Their musical references, all by Jewish songsmiths, stretch across almost a century, from 2025’s KPop Demon Hunters to 1932’s Bei Mir Bistu Shein.
Sitting at the front, I was hectored into disentangling fake nails from resistance exercise bands. These moments were so good, I wondered why there wasn’t much more audience participation. Drag a bubbe or boychik on to the stage!
JW3 favourite Debbie Chazen returns with a sweet-as-pie cameo as Fairy Cake, the godmother who saves Cinders – on the condition she is back from the ball before the clock strikes Shabbos. And a disembodied Emma (High) Barnett takes a break from BBC’s Today to punctuate proceedings with her Jews at Ten bulletins.
Cinderella and the Matzo Ball may be the only panto in the world that is open on Christmas Day, but it otherwise largely follows the rhythms of the format. Although, I must say, I did enjoy its deviations, particularly the Act II hallucinogenic jaunt to the Land of Treif, where unsuspecting Jews seeking out Canvey Island Chabad are the target of the Giant Prawn from Southend-on-Seafood. The makers deserve all the naches for conjuring something so blissfully unapologetic and, at a time of Jewish erasure in the arts, even transgressive.
The panto truly immerses itself in the minutiae of our history, geography and lexicography, but I am sure that gentile visitors will still relish the talking bagels and the Breadzinsky customer named Ivor Farshtinkne Tuchus. No matter whether they know their pipik from their elbow.
Cinderella and the Matzo Ball
JW3
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