Lloyd Webber's Cinderella Makes It To The Ball

David Spicer reports.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has had his first critical success in many a year, following the triumphant opening of his new musical adaptation of Cinderella.

As the Times reviewer noted, "We’ve reached the point where the making of this on-off show could almost be material for another musical. The postponements and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s increasingly anguished pronouncements have threatened to upstage his revamped version of the fairytale."

It was on and then off due to the UK's "pingdemic", a reference to COVID-19 restrictions in the UK which forced people into isolation if they were near someone who had come down with the dreaded virus.

"It has been harder for Andrew Lloyd Webber to schedule a press night for Cinderella than any prince has ever had to find the wearer of the glass slipper in the fabled fairytale," quipped a reviewed from My Theatre Mates.

Thankfully according to the New York Times, "The long-awaited show from the 73-year-old industry veteran turns out to have been worth the wait."

"Cinderella's inevitable prince, too, turns out not to be the Prince Charming of legend, who is reported missing at the show’s start, but his shy and gawky younger brother, Sebastian."

"Cinderella arrives at the ball, by which point the audience has had one, as well," wrote The Guardian.

The Evening Standard was even more enthusiastic. "Cinderella has a terrific palette of songs, a snappy contemporary edge, and a star – Carrie Hope Fletcher – whose voice is both beautiful and powerful enough to knock down walls. Never mind the plot, submit to the spectacle: around a quarter of the audience will literally feel the earth move under their feet."

There is an Australian connection. Time Out described local designer Gabriela Tylesova’s "cut out sets as nice, and there’s a spectacular coup de theatre in the ball scene, where the front half of the stalls rotate along with the stage."

The disappointment of the past postponements is but a memory. 

Photographer: Tristram Kenton

A month back the composer revealed that a member of the cast tested positive for COVID-19 and as a result the production has been halted.

"Freedom Day has turned into closure day," he said.  Read his full statement: