How Cinders got a little hot under the collar!
ANDREW Lloyd Webber is revamping his Cinderella musical after the production was savaged by the new ‘Butcher of Broadway’, New York Post theatre critic Johnny Oleksinski.
Critics here gave Cinderella mostly 4-5 star reviews; though not all were raves. But Lloyd Webber was so incensed by what ran in the Post — Oleksinski called it ‘joyless’ and said 30 minutes needed to be cut for it to have any chance of transferring to NY — that he took it out on the cast, berating them down the phone from his Mallorca holiday home.
The call was broadcast over loudspeakers while the actors were sitting on stage, preparing to perform at the Gillian Lynne Theatre last Friday evening.
A few were said to have been in tears and some were so outraged that there was a vote after Friday night’s show for strike action. However, this was said to have been done in the heat of the moment, and while there has been no further talk of striking, the cast has considered asking for an apology.
Oleksinski may have found plenty to fault with the show — but not the acting. He praised the cast and the ‘heart-racing ballads’. But he gave director Laurence Connor a drubbing (his production of Joseph is fun, though). And he dismissed Gabriela Tylesova’s set designs as ‘drab and forgettable’.
He wasn’t crazy about the book by Oscar-winner Emerald Fennell, either.
Though few were prepared to put their head above the parapet in a ‘difficult situation’, one agent with a client in the show said: ‘Andrew was clearly upset by the NY Post but he shouldn’t have slagged off performers like that when it was the production that had come under fire.’
BUT another praised the composer for stepping up and ‘giving people work’ during a troubled time. Re-rehearsals involving the full creative team and cast, to incorporate ‘adjustments’, will begin on Monday. The ‘new’ version will be unveiled on November 22 at a gala charity performance to raise money for the Malala Fund, the charity named for Malala Yousafzai, which works to empower women and girls. A source close to Lord and Lady Lloyd-Webber told me last night that the story was ‘all nonsense’. A statement from the production said: ‘Andrew is really proud of Cinderella and its entire cast and crew. He is absolutely passionate about each and every performance. And the audience reaction continues to be terrific.’