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

Totally it Burly. He’s had enough recent failures for us, the audience, to know what mistakes he repeats time and time again. I want it to be great, not something to crow about. Again, the melodies have been strong, the words less so. Rice had his fair share of ropey lyrics but ‘Bad Cinderella’ has set a new low bar and if its indicative of Zippell’s work here we may be in trouble. Carrie’s voice is lovely and will be rightly lauded in the reviews, but performance and material seem to be the risks here. Fingers crossed for Connor taking hold of it all and not taking any messing about.

This ^^^^
There seems to be a (poor) attempt at satire with the Mr Hot Buns/ALW Tik tok exchange where they talk about gluten free vegan hot buns etc which could be seen as dialling into modern trends: mocking vegans and the modern malaise of people with food allergies. Then of course we have the baker not so subtly being objectified for his hot buns etc which might (possibly, probably not) be deep comment on the way society objectifies women?


I can’t see any excuse for the mental health slurs in Bad Cinderella even if the townsfolk are supposed to be a bunch of Cinderella hating geezers and calling her these names because she’s ‘different’ to them.
Even with the full script at their disposal not even one cast member or creative felt uncomfortable at the lyrics in that song? MIND and other similar organisations work extremely hard to break down prejudice against those with MH issues. The last year has seen mental health hit an all time low. Loon, barking mad, nutter, lame - those names belong in a different era. The whole song is tone deaf. CHF who has to sing it is an advocate for positive mental health
There’s some lovely tunes in there Andrew but frankly Dave your lyrics suck on this one.
Ah mean c’mon Guv sort it ahht

So I had pre-ordered the double disc CD of Cinderella when they first made it available (might have been last year) and just got an email that the release is now pushed from May to end of June... Anyone know why? I'm guessing that with the Opening date having moved they're trying to keep the story still somewhat a surprise?

Amazon are still showing 30th April release date

So I've had an email saying that the double CD/triple signed vinyl etc is delayed until June.
But not heard anything re the highlights CD which I've also ordered.
Wonder if it's too much to hope that the highlights will still come out this month?

I wonder if CHF will do all of the shows...

Something tells me she’ll be scheduled off 1-2 shows a week

Thoughts?

Expect many lectures and finger wagging as she schools upset fans who bought a ticket and didn’t get to see her.

Should have be the same case for Heathers.
It’s not an easy vocal track and she pretty much ruined her voice doing that show with a reluctance to let the understudy cover. I hope they do schedule this for her wellbeing.

I don't really see how it would work though — obviously they're all entitled to holidays, and people do get ill.

But taking somebody on to only perform three quarters of the time, would you pay them three quarters of the salary? Would the other person do an ensemble role for the other six shows? It just seems a bit awkward. In some ways, you'd be better having two Cinderellas who do half the week each and go into the ensemble for the other half. But it isn't how theatre is set up.

(And I agree it's even more of a problem when you're selling a show based on a big name.)

Not necessarily. It depends on how demanding the score is and if she can sing it 8 times a week for monts. Alternates are not always in a musical from the beginning and are often introduced only when people realize that the protagonist cannot sustain 8 shows a week. The 2 weekly Effies became 3 several weeks into the run of Dreamgirls, while Ben Platt started having an alternate in Dear Evan Hansen several months into Broadway run. Sam Tutty had an alternate ever since previews because producers knew they would have needed one eventually, but with a new show it's hard to say.

Absolutely right and it is not just ALW.

I feel that’s why a lot of vocal damage is done because there’s this pressure to belt belt belt - and it’s tiresome. Not everyone’s vocal set up is geared towards that.

That’s why Hadestown was so refreshing and in a talk - Anais did say in essence, that they deliberately were queering MT.

I'm all for leads getting a scheduled off day, just because it's how it was done in the past doesn't mean it should always be like that.

Performers only get one full day off a week to rest, recover and look after their voice. Having a scheduled off show a week gives them a break. They're human and there's been a huge drive over the last few years concerning the mental and physical well being of performers.