We round up the reviews for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical, which has finally been able to open at the Gillian Lynne Theatre.
Evening Standard: **** “Laurence Connor’s production mixes panto-style archness with professional West End glitz and springs its big surprise in Act Two. At the ball, the stage and several rows of the stalls audience start to revolve, thanks to Lloyd Webber’s lockdown refurbishment of this theatre. It’s a magical moment.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “Director Laurence Connor’s production is neat and precise, complete with a jaw-dropping set piece during the ball and eye-popping costumes from Tylesova, and while Fennell’s script wanders on and off course a bit at the end, with a few mini conclusions, isn’t that a little bit like life? Full of stops, starts, endings, and new beginnings? Happily ever after is certainly due for the rebranding it’s getting at the Gillian Lynne. Here’s to a new kind of fairytale.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “You can feel Lloyd Webber having fun with this score; there’s a fabulous swirling waltz in the ballroom scene, when Laurence Connor’s energetic direction sets the whole of the front stalls spinning round the stage, like a giant waltzer.”
Time Out: “Fletcher is great, terrific with a quip and with a voice like an angel: in a fairly daft show, much of the emotional firepower is left up to her to deliver, which she absolutely does with a couple of gale-force late ballads.”
The Independent: *** “Andrew Lloyd Webber and Emerald Fennell’s show is visually spectacular, but lacks the consistent material to support its ideas.”
The Times: ***** “Cinderella is a triumph of catchy songs and fabulous wigs — it shouldn’t be denied to a joy-starved public.”
The Telegraph: **** “Magical, crowd-pleasing musical at the Gillian Lynne Theatre is one of the composer’s best.”
The FT: **** “This is a gorgeous glitterball of a show, featuring all the sweep, soar and swell of a Lloyd Webber musical but also, crucially, a large dose of sass.”
iNews: *** “The show has a shiny lollipop where its heart should be. But audiences up for a sugar rush and some glittery wish fulfilment will be willingly charmed.”
The Arts Desk: *** “A good night out, but with unrealised ambition to be rather more than that”
Express.co.uk: *** “For such a lavish, glossy affair there is also some jarring vulgarity. In this and so much elsewhere, the show frequently flirts with posh panto, the finest of which plays to adults and children with more finesse than the crass blowjob gestures and the clunky “F(orget) you” refrain here.”
Theatre Weekly: ** “Whilst there will be much deserved admiration for getting the production mounted in the most difficult of times, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella replaces magic, miracles and enchantment with misogyny, machismo and eroticism, and overall, it feels uncomfortable to watch. It’s as if composer, lyricist, writer and director each tried to create their own show independently, and ended up making this Cinderella more of a poisoned apple than a glass slipper.”
London Theatre1: **** “The set is as decent as a West End musical production would be reasonably expected to be, as is the lighting design (Bruno Peel) and the various costumes in the show (Gabriela Tylesova). The music and lyrics make this production what it is, however – one doesn’t (spoiler alert) feel short-changed by the lack of a visible golden carriage, for instance.”
Cinderella continues to play at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. To book tickets click here or visit: Love Theatre.com, From the Box Office, Theatre Tickets Direct.co.uk, Last Minute.com and London Theatre Direct.