Bourne’s Cinderella rocks Sadler’s Wells

A HIGH octane Cinderella promises and delivers glitz in the Blitz with the fairytale transported to wartime London amid the blackout and bombs, writes Allis Moss.

This fast-paced contemporary interpretation at London’s Sadler’s Wells leaves you breathlessly tapping your feet to a series of set pieces from night-time on The Embankment to a soldier’s bedroom, to Paddington station.

The Tour de Force is the Caf� de Paris with the bombed-out set complete with mirror ball reconstructing itself to a dancer’s paradise.

This is a version that was given the thumbs-up by the composer Prokofiev’s own artist son, Oleg, who came to sketch the dancers when director and choreographer Matthew Bourne first created the piece in 1997.

In this new show, Ashley Shaw’s bespectacled Cinders and Michela Meazza as Sybil, the vampishly wicked stepmother, are a sheer delight with the fairy godmother actually a debonair silver-haired male angel. The performance, the music, the magic and the set will leave you wanting more.

Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella is at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN, until Sunday (Jan 23). The show moves to New Wimbledon theatre from May 3.

http://www.sadlerswells.com/show/Matthew-Bourne-Cinderella