Producers The Really Useful Group announced today that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new musical Cinderella will now world premiere at The Gillian Lynne Theatre in London on Wednesday 7 April 2021, with previews from Friday 19 March 2021.
Andrew Lloyd Webber said “Whilst I continue to impress on the government that theatres can reopen safely based on The London Palladium model, it has become clear that we need to move the opening of Cinderella to next Spring. My teams have been working throughout lockdown to prepare the show and are raring to go, but there are key elements, not least casting and the building of sets and costumes, that take months of forward planning and can only start as we get further down the road to normal. So the show will absolutely go on, just a little later than I’d hoped.”
Ticket holders will be contacted individually to rearrange their plans and further information is available at www.andrewlloydwebberscinderella.com
Carrie Hope Fletcher will play Cinderella in the highly anticipated new production at the Gillian Lynne Theatre. She has starred in Heathers (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Addams Family (UK Tour), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK Tour), Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre), and most recently played Fantine in Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre. She is also a bestselling author and social media personality.
The production, a complete reinvention of the classic fairytale, is based on an original idea by Emerald Fennell, the Emmy Award nominated lead scriptwriter of the second season of international smash hit Killing Eve, with a brand new score from the legendary composer and lyrics by David Zippel.
Cinderella will reunite Andrew Lloyd Webber with director Laurence Connor and choreographer JoAnn M Hunter, who previously worked on the Olivier Award winning international hit School of Rock and the recent, sold out production of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at The London Palladium, which returns to the venue in Summer 21.
Fennell’s new film A Promising Young Woman, that she wrote and directed and which stars Carey Mulligan, will open this Autumn. As an actress she played Patsy Mount on the BBC’s Call The Midwife and currently depicts Camilla Parker Bowles on the Netflix hit The Crown.
The show’s lyrics are by David Zippel, a multi-award winner for Broadway productions including City of Angels, The Goodbye Girl, The Woman in White and Liza at the Palace, as well as for work on film including Disney’s Hercules and Mulan, both of which received Oscar nominations.
Cinderella will also star Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as the Stepmother. All further creative team and cast announcements regarding Cinderella will be made at a later date.
Ahead of Cinderella’s arrival at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, LW Theatres are carrying out internal upgrade work to the building including the addition of more toilets and refurbishment to areas of the auditorium and Front of House, as well as adopting measures to welcome back audiences safely as soon as restrictions allow. These measures are currently being trialled at The London Palladium and will be rolled out across LW Theatres.
