ALW's Cinderella - Gillian Lynne / U.K. Tour (rumour)

Generally speaking, Broadway is so much better at doing musicals than we are. musicals as we know them today, were born there. The great white way and all that. The dancing is sharper, slicker and you know a Broadway cast when you see it. The shear number of people trying to get on Broadway means you have to outshine everyone else to even get noticed. Yes Carrie can belt it out, but i doubt she'd get past the second round in a Broadway audition. Of course we can do it here too, 42nd Street is the most recent one that comes to mind, but its rarely seen on that scale.

I agree. We’ve been encouraged to accept competent performers as ‘stars’. Sheridan Smith is a gifted comedian/actress but her singing in Funny Girl was weak. Layton Williams, though a gifted dancer, is also limited as a vocalist. Jason Manford, on the other hand, can carry a tune - and probably goes down a treat at karaoke with My Way - but lacks both the acting chops and charisma required to be a leading man. (All IMO, of course.)

When Chicago first opened on the WE, for instance, a documentary about the creative process showed the exacting standards required by the producers and the visiting Broadway team. Experienced pros Ruthie Henshall & Ute Lemper were pushed so hard they both looked close to nervous breakdowns. Nowadays practically anyone who has been on tv can get a part in Chicago and they just work around their limitations.

Isn't there an Equity rule stating that British actors can't transfer unless they are a recognised global star or have a specific skill (and vice versa). It caused a drama with Sarah Brightman in Phantom because ALW threatened to not open the show on Broadway until they acknowledged she was a big enough star to transfer with it. Unless that's changed these days?

Yes and he only got around it by agreeing to cast an American in his next show.

I have absolutely no doubt that Carrie was “sold” to ALW partly on the basis of her social media status. You can just imagine him being taken in by it

“She’s a huge YouTube personality your Lordship, she will bring the young’uns along in their droves”
”But can she act? Can she sing?”
”She’s just been in Cameron’s Les Mis concert mi’lud. You should hear the belt on her! And she did this amazing acting bit when she glanced back when she exited the stage. It was spine tingling!”
”Hoorah! Just what we need for my racy, sweary, modern take on Cinders. Bring the girl to me immediately!”

Silly old Andy. Is Carrie even a big deal on SM any more? She has a lot of followers but the amount of engagement is strangely low. All those people never saying anything. It’s odd…

I find the no ‘formal’ training thing a bit of a misnomer. Her and her brother both attended classes (Sylvia Young I think) and will have been coached in making themselves employable. She then was cast in both Poppins and Chitty still as a child/early teen. Whilst she didn’t do a course, she has been surrounded by professional MT for the bulk of her working life.

She will have had her vocal techniques analysed when she started as Eponine and been told how to look after her voice etc. Can we just treat her as a jobbing actress with a bit more visibility from her time on social media? Obviously her books still sell or her publisher wouldn’t keep publishing them. She is not the problem with Cinderella. Cinderella is the problem with Cinderella. When ALW eventually chooses Carrie to scapegoat in the future, I hope its a long time after the school play direction, the godawful set and the woeful book. Because I thought she did a bloody good job of holding together what was only half an idea in the first place. In my opinion.

Yes. She seems to have thousands of followers yet only a handful make comments. A lot of actors seem to be hired these days on the basis of their social media followings. A basic check by a anyone not just interested in the overall number would reveal a huge wedge to be bots. They’re easy to spot . Usually a user name followed by lots of numbers or no profile pic just an egg. There are companies paid to drive up follower count and likes this way. Click on one of the egg accounts and you’ll see they usually have 0 followers and the basic minimum of accounts following to be allowed on Twitter)
Over on Instagram it’s the same story.
Its possible to make dozens of accounts. Social media is the emperor’s new clothes, the Wizard of Oz for a new generation. Look closer or pull back the screen? The illusion falls to bits.

I agree, the biggest issue is the show itself.

Sorry, I typed 'No' but meant yes earlier

I think her behaviour on social media is a lot to do with the negative reactions she generates. Plus revelling in her lack of training as an adult seems quite disrespectful towards those who put the time into developing their skills and techniques.

It seems probable that she would have missed far fewer performances if she had been trained in proper vocal technique and self care. And that in turn would have reduce the number of times she gets into online spats with people narked at seeing the understudy.

We're not dumping anything on them. if the investors in New York decide to back the project and it fails then that's their responsibility

Totally mystified by the sheer amount of Cinderella new publicity, photos, videos, podcasts flooding my feed at the moment. It’s like they’ve suddenly woken up to the fact they need to publicise the show to get bums on seats. Is this normal when a show has been open a year? This seems more than when it opened 🤔