THE show must go on, even if director Stuart Wade has been forced to pull out of the lynchpin role of Buttons until further notice with a torn muscle in his back.

The former Emmerdale soap star has not enjoyed the luckiest of pantomimes, after being left stranded at home by the Yorkshire snow storms for a day and a half during the first week of rehearsals.

He suffered the back injury in the first half of Monday’s matinee and was in such pain he could not continue in the show’s bounciest role on the advice of physiotherapist Alan Jordan (who happens to work in the Grand Opera House box office and tech department).

At five minutes’ notice, up stepped Andrew Fitch, swapping from the straight-laced Dandini to the daft Buttons, while RADA-trained York actor Samuel Cook assumed the valet’s role.

Wade was still on hand backstage to oversee the press-night performance, by which time Fitch had had a further chance to polish up his Buttons.

Cook took his elevation in his dapper stride too. Already familiar with a stage that he graced many times in the youth theatre days when he was known as Sam Coulson, he was au fait with the Cinderella script, having understudied Prince Charming last Saturday while Jason Lee Scott was attending a funeral.

Wade’s cast rallied to the cause, making the best of the cards that fate had dealt them, to the extent that the remarkably unfazed Fitch joked about how the “normal Buttons” would have handled one situation and ad-libbed his way out of one wrong opening line to a scene.

Upon slipping over in the ghost setpiece, he could not resist a quip about the risk of putting his back out.

The New Pantomime Production pantos at the Opera House used to be far too predictable, streamlined and flat-packed, but Wade’s ascent to directing duties last year has seen the show acquire more energy and zip and a sense of mischief.

As ever, the set designs are rudimentary; the underwhelming transformation scene is too reliant on Cinderella’s sparkling dress; and the script will never be the most original, still tending to shoehorn in its topical references and be over-reliant on stock routines.

However, Wade has his cast pulling together with purpose, and, crucially, not afraid to go off the book, especially free-spirited Lisa Riley, the buxom Yorkshire lass who is newly posh and proper as the cruel Baroness Sadista.

In the 12 Days Of Christmas routine with myriad domestic objects, Jen Pringle’s sparkling Fairy Godmother suddenly finds her five loo rolls flying off their rope, whereupon Riley rushes into the stalls and bets against herself to hurl one into a box.

Riley will be the life of this panto, all the more so in Wade’s enforced absence.

Veteran Syd Little’s Baron Hardup is a gentle, warm presence; Paul Critchlow and Sean Luckham’s Ugly Sisters are even louder than their dress sense; Lee Scott’s Prince has the pick of the singing voices; and Suzanne Carley’s blonde Cinderella is one for the fellas, glamorous rather than a waif, but she needs to fine-tune her duets with the Prince.

Chris Hocking’s musicians and choreographer Penny Howarth’s young dancers match the energy elsewhere, and one more ingredient is soon to be added: illusions provided by Dan Wood. Maybe he can magically heal Stuart Wade too. Cinderella, Grand Opera House, York, until January 2. Box office: 0844 847 2322 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk