Matthew Bourne's Cinderella

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella photos

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella description

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella retells the fairy tale as a wartime romance, set in London under the bombs of the Blitz.

It is 1940, and Cinderella keeps house for her stepmother Sybil and a family with little use for her. A wounded RAF pilot, Harry, arrives at the door, and a guardian angel in white sets the pair on a course towards the Cafe de Paris, the West End nightclub where they dance through a single night before a direct hit tears them apart. Cinderella is left to search a bombed city for a man she barely knows, with one shoe to go on.

The piece is danced to Sergei Prokofiev's score, written during the same war years, and takes its central event from history: the Cafe de Paris was hit on 8 March 1941. It premiered at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1997 and returns for its 30th anniversary, in what is New Adventures' 24th Christmas season at Sadler's Wells. Lez Brotherston's designs won an Olivier Award. The Times called it "fresh and vital, hilarious, profound and stunningly original", the Daily Telegraph "a perfect treat", and The Guardian "a gripping theatrical spectacle".

It is choreographed and directed by Matthew Bourne, whose Swan Lake won Olivier and Tony Awards, with set and costume design by Olivier Award-winner Lez Brotherston, lighting by Olivier Award-winner Neil Austin, video and projection design by Duncan McLean and sound design by Paul Groothuis.

The production is danced by the company of New Adventures, which created the work in 1997 as Adventures in Motion Pictures; casting for the anniversary season is announced ahead of the run. The running time is two hours and 20 minutes, including two intervals.

A love story told entirely in dance, played out over one night in a city under fire - book tickets for Cinderella at Sadler's Wells.

Playing at Sadlers Wells

Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN GB (venue info)

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