Laurence Connor: Last News

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “My job is to make sure that every production, wherever it is in the world, is to make it seem like nobody has ever seen it before,” theater producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh says talking about his shows like “Cats,” “Miss Saigon,” “Oliver,” “Mary Poppins” and “Les Miserables.” It’s the latter which is currently dazzling audiences at Hollywood’s Pantages through Sept. 10 and has undergone a makeover for its latest incarnation. Over 71 million people worldwide have seen the show.

Bad Cinderella, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s updated musical re-telling of the classic fairy tale, will play its final Broadway performance on Sunday, June 4.

Your first thought after seeing Bad Cinderella, the latest musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is, well, she isn’t that bad. For better and worse.

Naveen Kumar The addition of “bad” to the title of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest maximalist spectacle, formerly known simply as “Cinderella” when it premiered for a short-lived run on the West End in 2021, would seem like a cleverly self-conscious move. Was it preemptive self-defense against Broadway reviews like this one, that would apply aesthetic judgment to the musical’s gauche bonanza of too-muchness? Would its version of Cinderella be — you know, a bad girl, but in a sexually liberated (and feminist!) way? Or was it a rare bit of truth in advertising? To clear up the obvious question, “Bad Cinderella,” which opened at the Imperial Theater Thursday night, isn’t good. Composed by Webber and with lyrics by David Zippel, it is a muddled and momentum-less retooling of the familiar fairy tale in search of a coherent point of view as if it were a glass-slippered foot. The book, originally written by Emerald Fennell, the Oscar winning screenwriter of “Promising Young Woman,” and adapted for Broadway by the playwright Alexis Scheer, is an illogical head-scratcher, despite being based on a story most everyone knows. “Bad Cinderella,” directed here by Laurence Connor (“School of Rock”), even manages to gleefully reinforce the chronic social fixations — on beauty, vanity and wealth — that it purports to deem toxic. 

Carolee Carmello (1776, Finding Neverland), Grace McLean (Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812) and Jordan Dobson (A Beautiful Noise) will be among the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella when it arrives on Broadway in February, joining the previously announced Linedy Genao (who plays the title role).

Andrew Lloyd Webber will add several new songs and a brief word to the title of Bad Cinderella – formerly, in London, just Cinderella – when the musical opens on Broadway next spring.

coming to Broadway after all — and, like the main character, she’s getting an extreme makeover.First they’re ditching the title that confused Brits because they associate the princess with Christmas pantomimes and would have stumped Americans because they’d expect Rodgers and Hammerstein or Disney. For its run at the Imperial Theatre beginning Feb. 17, 2023 (one day before Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” shoves the old chandelier in a storage unit), the show has been renamed “Bad Cinderella.” The only other time Lloyd Webber gave a different moniker to a show after a major West End run was when he changed “Jeeves” to “By Jeeves.” But a “By” ain’t a “Bad.” Tell us what you think of the title “Bad Cinderella” in the comments, readers!There will also be a brand-new star.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is bringing another show to Broadway as he prepares to say goodbye to The Phantom Of The Opera. The musical theater icon, 74, announced Monday that his retooled version of Cinderella will land in New York at the Imperial Theatre in February with new songs, a new leading lady and a new title.Bad Cinderella - borrowing the title from a key song in the show rather than using London West End's blander name Cinderella - will star Linedy Genao in the title role.  New show! Andrew Lloyd Webber is bringing Bad Cinderella to Broadway with actress Linedy Genao cast in the starring roleShe's had ensemble roles in Dear Evan Hansen and On Your Feet! Carrie Hope Fletcher played the title character in London.Lloyd Webber hopes his fairy tale has a better ending on Broadway than it did in London, where Cinderella closed less than a year after opening and suffered heavy losses, particularly when COVID-19 scrambled its run. The stage musical features a brand new score from Lloyd Webber with a book by Emerald Fennell and lyrics by David Zippel. JoAnn M.

Andrew Lloyd Webber has responded after being booed at the final performance of Cinderella in London, U.K., on Sunday.

J. Kim Murphy The West End’s production of “Cinderella” took its final bow in London Sunday evening, although a key member of the production’s creative team was not in attendance at the Gillian Lynne Theatre.

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