A family-friendly fairy tale.
Gone are the staging reductions and performer bubble constraints seen last time out hot on the heels of the COVID lockdown, and instead, all is opulent and bursting at the seams with sparkly sumptuousness.
Carlos Acosta is now established at the BRB helm, and he masterfully directs the revival of Sir David Bintley’s award-winning three-act classic resplendent with sparkly corps de ballet pieces, ghastly and garish stepsisters, magicked animals and glittering coach.
John MacFarlane’s sets range from dreary kitchen through twinkling starry night to luxurious ballroom and industrial ticking clock enhanced by David Finn’s apposite lighting, while Charlotte Politi conducts the sprightly Royal Ballet Sinfonia in the pit.
Yu Kurihara is an exquisite barefoot heroine, abused and unloved, dancing with a broom as if her true love and giving her cherished dead mother’s sparkly shoes to an unknown down-and-out. The pathos is palpable, her solos excellent and her pointe work tremendous—especially the breathtaking controlled descent into the ballroom.
Her prince is the graceful Lachlan Monaghan, whose lifts and jetés compliment Kurihara superbly.
Rosanna Ely and Tessa Hogge are the spiteful stepsisters, but also provide the laughs with chaotic lessons with an exasperated Dancing Master (Gus Payne) and mayhem in the ballroom with footmen, fruit and cakes akimbo and even the grandiose Major Domo (a stately Rory Mackay again) losing both his cool and his staff.
Daria Stanciulescu is elegant and aloof as the wicked stepmother, while Isabella Howard is the Fairy Godmother, and the corps shine whether costumed in courtly Renoiresque burgundy, grape and charcoal lavish with brocaded frock-coats and frothed petticoats or shimmering in white and silver.
Dry ice, self-igniting fire, reptilian footmen, teeny mice pages (played in rotation by young dancers) and seasonal solos add up to a magical few hours.