"The first question people seem to ask these days is, 'Who's your star?'" laments Mark Rayment.

"We haven't got a boxing legend, a celebrity chef or someone who passed their driving test on national television. We've got a superb company of proper actors who are playing proper characters and telling the story with integrity and credibility."

Billed as a traditional pantomime with a contemporary twist, Cinderella is the first Christmas show since the re-opening of the De La Warr Pavilion.

And they're determined to provide a compelling alternative to the "more predictable, celebrity-based stuff" on offer elsewhere.

With Rayment flying in from Cape Town to direct and a fresh new script by playwright Christine Harmar Brown, this production has the longest rehearsal period for any panto in the country.

It also has a live five-piece band instead of a backing track, specially made costumes for every single character, a grand total of 16 songs and state-of-the-art video projections in place of "a hoary old backcloth".

"Ten years ago panto became a very corrupted art form," observes Rayment.

"If you work for a company who produce 20 or 30 pantomimes throughout the country you lose quality control and it becomes a production line.

"You get given a script, a trunk full of moth-eaten costumes and a set that arrives via Crewe and is tacky as hell.

For a lot of children panto is their first experience of a live theatrical event.

It really should be more magical than that."

Sticking to the simple rags-to-riches love story of Cinderella and Prince Charming, this production has all the elements (the cooking sketch, the strip, the ghost gag) of a traditional pantomime.

But at times the set is more like a cross between a children's story book and a video game while the music ranges from Broadway to pop ballads, with David Bowie's Changes setting the tone, a Fairy God Mother (Llewella Gideon) who belts out James Brown and a royal ballroom that gets down to the sounds of Saturday Night Fever.

"We're not contracted to sing anyone's Top 60 hits just 'cos they've been in the jungle for a few weeks," Rayment laughs. "So we can get on with telling the story."

Starts at 2pm and 7pm. Tickets cost £5-£15, call 01424 229111.