By Mary Damiano

Jude Parry as the Good Fairy and Jessica Pacheco in the title role in the Gold Coast Theatre Company’s British panto Cinderella

Take a flamenco-dancing Cinderella, toss in cross-dressing actors and mix liberally with the star power of former Monkee Davy Jones, and you’ve got the recipe for a classic panto, a British theatrical tradition brought to life by the Golf Coast Theatre Company.

This is the fifth year Gold Coast is presenting a panto, which is as much a holiday tradition in England as The Nutcracker is here in the States.  This year marks the first time the show will be presented in Palm Beach County and the first time the company has a headliner with the name recognition of Davy Jones.

According to Jude Parry, founder and artistic director of the Gold Coast Theatre Company, several names were bandied about as possibilities for the Cinderella headliner.  Jones’s name evoked the most name recognition with people of all ages, not so much for his tenure with The Monkees, but for a guest shot he did on “The Brady Bunch”, in which Marcia sets out to get Jones, at the time a teen idol, to sing at her prom.