The production begins with a sombre, grey scene in silhouette showing Cinderella (Beatrice Parma) and her father at her mother’s grave. The stepsisters-to-be (Ellis Small and Olivia Chang Clarke) stand at the side while her future stepmother (Daria Stanciulescu) walks off with the father.
The curtains then open to reveal a great kitchen set (MacFarlane) with Cinderella, name taken from her sitting near the cinders, serving her ‘sisters’, and so the story begins.
The sisters taunt Cinders to distraction, so she takes solace in the only thing she has left of her mother: her silver slippers. Suddenly, a real fire appears in the hearth with an old lady in rags sitting there. Cinders feeds her and gives her the slippers to warm her feet, then she disappears behind the large cupboard to allow the palace staff to enter with the ball invites.
After this scene, the sides of the set recede to allow the Fairy Godmother (Isabella Howard) and Spring (Reina Fuchigami) to appear. The are also the other three seasons, Summer (Yuki Sugiura), Autumn (Amelia Thompson) and Winter (Alisa Garkavenko). A large mirror is brought on by the Frog and two Lizard Footmen, who introduce a lot of humour. The act ends with a fabulous crystal coach appearing at the back, which unfortunately is largely hidden by the company in front. End of act one.
Act two is in the ballroom, another well designed set, elegant, with many company dances. The largely dark costumes highlight Cinderella's white costume beautifully. The Prince (Enrique Bejarano) has a rather melancholy duet with Parma in contrast to their duet, the sweet melodic number in act three, with the 16 dancers. As midnight approaches, a spectacular clockwork mechanism of a clock, spouting smoke, forms in the back.
Act three opens with a front cloth lifting to reveal a mountain of shoes upon which many go to try and claim the slipper as theirs. The cloth then drops for quite some time, while the kitchen is set. We should all know what happens then: slipper and Cinderella are reunited and the couple are joined as one, dancing off into the sunrise. A story of rags to riches with nice girl marrying her prince.
The story goes back to the Chinese and Greek versions dating back to the 9th century; the English known version traces back to the French story Cendrillon first published in 1697 by Charles Perrault. There are over 500 variations of the story in Europe alone, a very popular tale, great story for a ballet; even if you do not know the story, it is clearly portrayed by the dance.
There is a lot of humour also, particularly with the antics of the two sisters and an amusing scene with the dancing master (Gus Payne) when he teaches them to dance. The audience also love the Frog Coachman (Marlo Kempsey-Fagg) and Lizard Footmen (Ixan Llorca Ferrer, Oscar Kempsey-Fagg) with the two little Mice Pages (Isabelle Nygyen, Holly Sanders). While I think the world is politically correct mad, it does not follow that an overweight person is clumsy and awkward; much humour is derived from the overweight sister, not necessary.
It is very sad so much design and effort in designing the carriage ended up not really seen enough to be appreciated; the clock got a good outing. Why was it necessary to drop a cloth while the kitchen scene was set, as later a wonderful gauze dropped in front of it to strike the kitchen? The shoe scene could be performed in front of the gauze, all helping the action flow. It may be due to a technical issue that Parma could not have any silver on her pumps during the ballroom scene as she drops one when exiting, but had only worn pink pumps; while possibly a minor point it stood out as wrong.
One can see Sir David Bintley's ballet experience coming into play with his arrangements, the choreography fitting in with the music and vice versa. One can see why his work is performed internationally from Tokyo to San Franciso. Although there is no doubt as to the acclaim of the composer Sergei Prokofiev, the music is often more like a brass band, rather bombastic, maybe because of the heavy use of wind and brass, or could be due to personal preference.
There is no doubt this is a spectacular, immersive audience experience. The captivating costumes surmounted by wonderful wigs (Shuailun Wu) surrounded by sensational sets and all set off by lavish lighting (Peter Teigen) add depth to the production, a complete visual delight.