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

They only gave two or three hours notice that they were doing it, so it was never going to get many attendees really, but there’s talk of more to come. Baz is reporting on it on deadline deadline.com/2022/05/andrew-lloyd-webber-cinderella-protests-broadway-1235015140/ so that’s a bit of bad publicity for the show in the US.

Funny how all the Cast members have gone silent …

Sadly I’m not sure what good that protest with a small amount of people would have done

Is this confirmed about the warnings?
I just find it interesting how they are so vocal on social media yet when it really boils down to it no one was willing to step up. It’s been extremely quiet today especially from one who can’t usually wait to jump on a cause.

I'm not sure if I'm missing the point with this, but surely if you strip all the noise out of this the only real issue here is that the news leaked before the cast and crew could be formally notified?

As it is, all of those currently employed will have far more notice than the majority of people working on a show that gets its notice (which is more often than not only 2 weeks) -- and while it's regrettable from the perspective of the people due to join the new cast, they will have all signed up to a 2 week notice period as a matter of course too (so all of the talk of having made decisions based on the assumption of a year's employment are a bit hyberbolic -- or massively ill-considered, depending on how you look at it).

I did see one of the cast (incorrectly) suggesting that on Broadway actors get 2 months notice and advocating for that to happen here: Just to be clear, if it did theatre would virtually shutdown overnight. There are very, very few producers who have pockets deep enough to prop up 2 months of a loss-making show -- and even fewer investors who would be prepared to accept that sort of liability.

I'm not saying that this hasn't been dealt with very clumsily -- because it has -- but I can't help think that a lot of people are getting a bit carried away.

One producer who does have deep enough pockets… ALW! And he’s been propping this up to the tune of £100k per week since it opened apparently. So any other show would have closed months ago leaving the current cast unemployed/uncertain about futures etc etc. One could spin this to make ALW look like a hero for keeping them employed and paid while the ship was literally sinking. 

That's kind of what I was driving at BurlyBeaR. It's a very difficult situation, but I do think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that most producers in this situation would have thrown up the shutters a long, long time ago. Unconditionally demonising him seems very myopic and doesn't do enough to engage with the vicissitudes of producing large scale theatre, particularly in the current climate. It's easy to tell someone else how they should burn their cash...

But from what I understand the press release was issued in response to the fact that the story had broken before the formal notification to cast and crew. Obviously it's not ideal, but given the various different channels through which these things have to be managed -- including the multiple ticketing agencies -- it's not 'very simple' at all. 

If you want to do it properly, you do it properly. If you don’t really care you let it slip out and accidentally spill elsewhere. End of.

Broadway shows can have very little notice of closure so whoever suggested Broadway shows get two months notice is talking a load of crap.

Some shows do get a long closing notice but it's rare. Aladdin for example was 11 months but most long closures are between 4-6 months.

Exactly this. Is it heart breaking for the new cast? Yes. Is it misfortunate how it was handled? Of course. However, once context has been applied, it really, really isn't as bad as it initially seemed. It certainly isn't anywhere close to being as insidious as some theatre "influencers" are making out, either. 

The story had broken because box office staff noticed tickets had been taken off sale, because he'd decided to cancel the show. The story wouldn't have broken if they hadn't already made the decision and put the exit plan into action.

And as I said earlier, yesterday it was the number one on the most read articles on BBC news. This has definitely had "impressions" as they say in the social media/advertising world.