Matthew Bourne's Cinderella

Matthew Bourne has converted a delightful fairy tale into a story with the stark realism of the 1940 London Blitz. In other Cinderellas the two step-sisters provide the comic relief. No comedy here, they have only a minor role. And there are also 3 obnoxious step-brothers to clutter up the stage in the first act. (If this is supposed to be comedy, it escapes me.) There’s a clever duet between Cinderella and a mannikin, but that’s about it. The fairy godmother is a male angel, and to preserve the 1940 milieu, he drives her to the ball in a motorcycle with a sidecar (actually 1918). The prince is an RAF airman, who definitely is not in good shape (possibly has something like shell-shock.)The ball is actually a party at a nightclub, but the nightclub has just been bombed and there are a lot of dead bodies lying all over the place. However, the angel gets there first and brings everybody back to life again, where the couples start dancing something like a jitterbug. The airman is there, now rejuvenated, and he joins in the dancing. In other Cinderellas, just before midnight she and the prince “declare their love” with a duet that’s a highlight of the ballet. Here, the airman does the prince one better, and takes Cindy to bed for a little quickie sex. Comes midnight there’s no clock, but the Nazis have to come back and bomb the place all over again (good stage effects). Half the people are killed and Cinderella is wounded. She is carted off to the hospital, losing the obligatory shoe in the process.The third act after that gets even worse. The airman suffers a lot in looking for Cinderella, and I suffered also just watching him. The ballet ends 3 years later with a particularly corny sequel. It’s awful. I have an extensive ballet DVD collection with 10 Cinderellas (and another one with Strauss music). Many have modifications of the original Cinderella story, but they all have a goodly amount of charm, grace, and magic. But not this one. It has a few interesting portions and I was tempted to give it a 2 rating, but that third act was a killer. (Perhaps you might call this a dance-drama instead of a ballet -- even still, I didn't like it.)I guess you have to be a Bourne fan to appreciate this ballet. I note that when it comes to a chorus of only one sex, he seems to prefer the male (as in this and his Swan Lake).

You really need an imagination to connect this to The Cinderelloa we all know.....

This could have been SO EPIC. Instead it felt a little flat and lurid at times. We had to look up the plot online because we couldn't follow it by just their dancing. Not a fan, and I'm sad about it.

Matthew Bourne has done it again. Cinderella has been done to death, but this one breaks the mold. His reimagining of the story in World War II London is very creative and really fits Prokofiev's eerily beautiful music. The staging is spectacular and Bourne's ability to tell a complex and dramatic story through movement and dance really comes through.

Visually stunning, but I refer the original coreography

I love it. The update is amazing, the dancers are divine.

SENSACIONAL..MAGNÍFICO

I love Matthew Bourne!. I have many of his musicals on dvd and this one did not disappoint!

I cannot praise this version too highly. Matthew Bourne has produced a ballet that deserves repeated viewings to fully appreciate every piece of his choreography.. He has set the action during the Blitz in London and Cinderella dreams of going to the the ball (Cafe De Paris) when she is concussed by a blast from a bomb and meets her injured airman friend as a Hollywood movie star. The dancing is excellent by all the cast and as you would expect from one of his productions, the acting skills are first rate. The filming is fantastic to show important o expressions of their faces and body movements. I have watched this several times and find something new to appreciate each viewing. I just marvel at his imagination given to his ballets and this one never disappoints. I look forward to more of his productions in the future.

I saw the original production at the Piccadilly Theatre with Adam Cooper and thought it rather good. This 'new' version amplifies the usual Bourne cliches, the dull uninspiring choreography, the appallingly unfunny first scene and the overall tastelessness of the 'concept'. The three leading performers lack charisma, the camera work is awful, and worst of all Prokofiev's music (his name the smallest in the credits) which is the reason d'etre for the ballet is reduced to mere background music. I have very high-end hifi and even with volume at maximum some of it is inaudible. A huge disappointment. And what a let down after his really imaginative Swan Lake and Nutcracker.

As usual Matthew Bourne has re-imagined a traditional tale. This version of Cinderella is set in London in the blitz. There is an excellent interview with him on the disc, which gives the thought and inspiration behind the ballet. I recommend you watch that first - especially as it explains the 'Angel' well. All the music id Prokofiev's, which Matthew fell in love with. The dancing and acting is superb. This is definitely going into my top ten.

Brilliant adaptation, setting Cinderella during the second world war. I had wanted to see this for a while and planned to attend a live screening at the cinema in May until lockdown happened so decided to buy the DVD. Glad I did, very enjoyable.

Excellent production. One slight quibble. Why start the credits just as the 2 leads come on for their curtain call?