one4review | On 11, Aug 2025

Cinderella Ice Cream Seller – A Musical (Little Seeds Music) remixes the classic fairy tale with a playful, entrepreneurial twist. Framed inside the “world-famous” Cinderella’s Ice Cream Parlour, we follow Talvi, a wide-eyed flavour-maker, and Caldwell, her rule-bound manager, as they retell how a cellar-sleeping Cinderella turns craft into a company. The familiar beats are all there: the royal invitation, a fairy godparent, the glass slipper, and that ticking stroke of midnight, retooled as a witty origin story where pumpkin spice served in a slipper sends a prince on a kingdom-wide tasting quest. Live music, swift costume gags, and light audience prompts (naming favourite flavours, touring the shop) keep the storytelling bright and nimble without losing its fairy-tale glow.

As an experience, it’s buoyant and wonderfully inclusive. The crowd is invited to sing, chant, and “dust” the palace, while children gleefully shout out flavours; mint choc chip got an audible cheer at my performance. The score moves from a chirpy company jingle to fuller, pop-folk numbers; a recurring anthem about seeking “something bigger” lands with heart, and the autumnal description of that pumpkin ice cream almost lets you taste cinnamon in the air. Playful mishaps (a repeatedly misspelt birthday sign) and the Bonbon Sisters’ sugar-slick scheming bring cartoonish fun, while Talvi and Caldwell’s banter, creativity versus precision, adds a surprisingly tender spine. The tone swings confidently between silliness and sincerity, and the room feels held, especially younger theatregoers who relish the call-and-response mischief.

If anything, the early “lecture/tour” sequence and the Prince’s tasting montage could be tightened by a minute; the company song reprises the risk one repeat too many before the show “jazzes it up”. But the strengths are considerable: a smart reimagining of Cinderella that honours the story we know while celebrating graft, recipe-book rigour, and brave new ideas. The leads are charming, the lyrics nimble, and the glass-slipper gag is genuinely inspired.  Cinderella Ice Cream Seller – A Musical is a warm, witty family treat, sweet, yes, but with enough flavour contrast to please grown-ups too. Consider this a happily-ever-after with sprinkles.

*****

Reviewed by Matthew

Underbelly Bristo Square – Ermintrude

Until 17 Aug (not 13 or 14)