Following on from last year’s highly successful production of The Red Shoes, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures presents Cinderella at Sadler’s Wells before embarking on a UK tour. Here Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews:
The Stage: **** “Evocative, spectacular and very, very loud, this is Bourne at his most Barnum-like.”
Musical Theatre Musings: **** “Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella is a masterclass in reinvention with this gritty and relevant interpretation of a classic.”
Jonathan Baz Reviews: ***** “The best fairytales have always melded magic with monstrosity and Bourne’s vision upholds that fusion as goodness fights to triumph over evil.”
WhatsOnStage: ***** “It is storytelling of the highest order and brilliantly served by the dancers, who seem to get better and better.”
The Independent: **** “Ashley Shaw brings a radiant sweep of movement to Cinderella’s dances, matched by Andrew Monaghan as the pilot. They move endearingly between splendour and vulnerability”
The Guardian: **** “Clever, clever Bourne. He sprinkles his stage with the stardust of fairytale romance, but he gives his story a proper tear-jerking heft by reminding us that darkness always surrounds the stars.”
The Times: “Matthew Bourne’s wartime Cinderella looks the part, but the music takes a hit.”
The FT: *** “The show’s big idea — a wartime London setting — is a fabulous fit with Prokofiev’s dark and doomy score (composed 1940-44) and Lez Brotherston’s award-winning recreation of the Blitz chills the blood, but the characters are thin and uninvolving and the story — a jumble of cinematic tropes — remains busy and confusing despite countless tweaks and edits.”
Broadway World: **** “Cinderella is one of Bourne’s most accomplished and polished retellings to date, full of his signature humour, charm, detail and thrilling choreography.”
Time Out: *** “Although the brilliant opening gives way to some filler scenes and plot confusions, this ‘Cinderella’ has enough romance, fantasy and fun to keep us hooked.”
The Telegraph: **** “Bourne on merely good form is still more enjoyable than most dance-makers downhill with the wind behind them, and if you’re looking for an alternative to this season’s ubiquitous Nutcrackers, this is one sparkly shoe that should fit very nicely indeed.”
Theatre Bubble: ***** “Bourne and the New Adventures have created not just a show, but an entire world, and it is one well worth visiting.”
London Dance: “Audiences must take into account that Cinderella is neither ballet or musical but sits somewhere in between giving credence to skeletal choreography.”
Evening Standard: *** “Some duff scenes, but this is a lively, romantic Cinderella. It’s Strictly Come Air Raid — with extra glitter.”
British Theatre Guide: “Imagination in overdrive, Bourne has rewritten his 1997 Cinderella and loaded it with almost too much detail. There are times when the narrative sags under its weight and the rewind and fast forward buttons confuse.”
Bachtrack: ***** “The strength of Bourne’s work always lies in the way the he reimagines his stories so completely that they are at once satisfying versions of the original source material and simultaneously new stories that have something to say to us in our times. This Cinderella continues in this vein, offering a rewarding but thoughtful theatrical treat.”
Cinderella will continue to play at Sadler’s Wells until the 27th January 2018 before touring the UK. To book tickets click here or visit: Ticketmaster.co.uk, Encore Tickets, Love Theatre.com, See Tickets.com and Last Minute.com.