“Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” Despite Meryl Streep’s infamous sneer from The Devil Wears Prada, classic choices persist for a reason, and the Royal Ballet’s new production of Cinderella is a flower-bedecked fantasy just when we need it.
Cinderella (1948) is a homegrown classic, the first English full-length ballet. In Frederick Ashton’s take on the fairy tale, romance is tempered by comedy, elegance by eccentricity: it couldn’t be more English. The ballet has been missing from Covent Garden for 12 years, partly because the previous designs were uninspiringly blah. A new design team – Tom Pye (sets), Alexandra Byrne (costumes), plus colleagues in light and projection – restores the magic.
