Andrew Lloyd Webber may not be in fashion at this exact moment, but he remains the master of get-your-money’s-worth musicals. Lloyd Webber has devoted his life to perfecting his signature blend of rock’n’roll, choral music and power-drill organs and synthesizers, all topped off with a heaping scoop of spectacle (one could easily lose an afternoon to watching YouTube videos of the chandelier crash in Phantom of the Opera alone). Donald Trump is said to be fond of his pomp-filled productions. The King of England invited him to compose a song for his coronation in May.
Lloyd Webber’s latest, Bad Cinderella, now on Broadway after a tumultuous start in London’s West End, is not lacking in the sweeping melodies and staccato punctuations that are the bedrock of the ALW sensibility. This time he’s playing around with one of the most vanilla chapters in the book of Brothers Grimm. The result is a production that is cheerful, a little cheeky, and not a little chaotic.
