I had never seen a Matthew Bourne show, let alone any sort of dance theatre so I went into Cinderella not really knowing what to expect and not really knowing how to judge. This Cinderella was set during the Blitz in London, a modern fairytale. There was no fairy god mother but rather an angelic man who seemed to be playing the part of Cinderella’s conscious. There was no prince either, instead there was only an injured pilot who stumbles into Cinderella’s home. There were still an evil stepmother and sisters however, some of the characters who stole the show because I felt the main characters were quite bland by comparison.
Which leads me to my first criticism, the characters. I felt that so many of the characters just fell short. There was no real character that really kept my attention for very long and wooed me with their charm. I felt that the dancers were great dancers but not necessarily good actors. Maybe it was because it was a story I had heard so many times before, but there was no new twist put on the characters to keep my interest. They seemed to distinctly lack a personality.
While the story and the setting didn’t win me over, the dance and choreography seemed quite beautiful. Like I said I had never really seen a dance show before so I didn’t really have anything to compare to. I also know nothing about dance. I mean those dancers were definitely doing things I could never do and that alone impressed me. Then they were also doing in unison with each other. Wow. But after a while I felt like they were just dancing the same dance over and over again. Maybe it’s my dance ignorance that kept me from seeing the differences but I felt like the same waltz was being performed with different costumes in different settings. In fact it was the big dances with the most characters that I strangely felt were the least interesting. One dance that did win my fancy was the dance that Cinderella performed with the manikin while dreaming about the prince. I felt it was truly unique compared to the other dances. It was only the time in which I felt Cinderella showed any sort of personality. There was quirk and humor in dance and it was overall charming. It was less graceful and more entertaining.
While the performers of the show didn’t win me over, to be honest neither did the setting. I felt that while the setting was pretty and interesting, it was a gimmick that got old quick. Once again maybe it was ignorance keeping me from enjoying it. I didn’t live in London during the Blitz and haven’t seen many classic films from the era so all the specific references went right over my head. Instead I focused on the little inconsistencies. One big one was the giant drop with the painted shoe. It was a beautiful shoe amongst the rubble but it most definitely was not he peep toed shoes Cinderella was wearing. How you have such a giant oversight for such a big production amazed me. It only took me a moment to realize that the shoe I stared at for ten minutes waiting for the show to start was not the right shoe. I know it was a small detail but it was enough, along with awfully uncomfortable seats to ruin the entire experience for me. While I had big hopes for Cinderella, it really just fell flat for me.
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