A busy month means this review is extremely late, but here goes anyway. Cinderella was the second Ashton ballet for the Royal Ballet this season, and while not quite up to the high standards of La Fille Mal Gardee, these were still three very enjoyable evenings.
The production is glitzy, in the same vein as the Nutcracker, while the pantomime Ugly sisters make for less dull tweeness than Sleeping Beauty. Prokofiev's often haunting music also adds depth to what could easily become a superficial waltz through a fairy story.
Curtain up and Cinderella is alone by the fire, until her stepsisters fall onto the stage. The sisters get a lot of stage time in this ballet, almost more than Cinderella herself, and while a limited amount of pratting around is funny, by the end of the evening one rather tires of it. Luke Heydon's face is a picture, but was so subtle as to only be appreciable from the stalls, while Gary Avis and Philip Mosley projected far better to the nether regions of the Opera House. Wayne Sleep waddled endearingly, but played his part rather one-dimensionally. Cinderella pines for her dead mother, and her somewhat drippy father rather pathetically lets himself be pushed around by the sisters. Once the sisters are dispatched to the ball, Cinderella wish-dances with her broom. Miyako Yoshida was the picture of refinement and subtle emotion on what was her penultimate performance at the Royal (17/04/10), and Yuhui Choe (22/04/10) sweetly graceful as she stepped in last minute for Alina Cojocaru. The Fairy Godmother then turns up to work her magic - Laura Morera was fantastic, ruling the stage with her energy. Tara-Brigitte Bhavnani had less success, seeming nervous and failing to exert anything like Morera's stage presence. The fairies spring, summer, autumn and winter were danced to varying standards on all three nights. The choreography for summer is dire (even Yuhui Choe couldn't completely pull it off), but Iohna Loots' Spring was dynamic, and Clare Clavert's winter perfectly flitting between hard ice and flurrying snow flakes. The corps weave onto the stage as the moon becomes a clock, cyclically dancing the whirring hands and cogs of ticking time.
Second act, enter the Prince. Stephen McRae managed to exude double his stature in stage presence, and in the few solo sections danced exuberantly, and pretty much perfectly. He partnered Miyako Yoshida to perfection; really some of the best partnering I have seen in many years - every line perfectly echoed, every moment perfectly synchronous. Yoshida was the very picture of elegance and precision. Gary Avis and Michael Stojko pull off suitably ridiculous partners for the ugly sisters by simply playing it straight, the pas de deux between Luke Heydon and Gary Avis being particularly hilarious, ending in a full lift. Paul Kay was a snappy jester, keeping the act moving and holding all the dances together. Time dances in and out, and eventually the clock strikes twelve and Cinders flees the scene, leaving the all important glittery pointe shoe at the top of the steps.
Things wrap up fairly quickly in Act III, after some funny dress swapping between the sisters. The shoe fits, and hey presto happy ending. The fairy godmother then orchestrates the final marriage, and Cinderella and her Prince walk off into the sunset, although only Yoshida and McRae managed to stay in time right to the end. It lacks a final grand pas de deux, which is a shame, but if danced well
then the earlier dances should still be on your mind.
Cinderella is good fun, and if danced as well as on the 17th (Yoshida, McRae and Morera) then it is magical. Only negatives are that it is maybe a bit of a pantomime overdose, and you don't get quite enough of Cinderella.
