With poor Cinderella locked in a wardrobe by those beastly Ugly Sisters, she seems to have no chance of placing her foot in the glass slipper and thereby winning the hand of Prince Charming.

Thank goodness for a Fairy Godmother with a special spell for getting people out of closets! “A lot of my fairy friends have benefited from this one,” says Lesley Joseph as she twirls her wand to sort the problem. Yes, we catch her drift.

Birds of a Feather star Ms Joseph gives us a hard-working and eminently crowd-pleasing turn in this good-looking production. That she is not unwilling to join in jokes about herself, especially those touching on her age, makes her performance the more appealing.

While the absence of a live band might not go down well with some people, there can be no doubt that the money saved on this has been well spent on other aspects of the production. These include spectacular effects (I won’t be too specific) involving Cinders’s transport to the ball and lavish costumes, especially those worn by the Ugly Sisters (Ben Stock and Adam Stafford).

Comedy is in good supply through the contribution of Matt Slack’s good-sort Buttons, and the joshing relationship between the camp major domo Dandini (Kevin Brewis) and his boss the Prince (Mark Adamson).

With a cast of very modest dimension (no Baron Hardup, for instance), much use is made of the six-strong ensemble. The work of the male dancers, Ashley Orwin and Adam Brigham, is especially praiseworthy (if their thigh-hugging silvery tights are not).

Until January 8. Box office: 01494 (wycombeswan.co.uk)