In May the news that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella would close early came as a shock, not least to its cast and crew who were either told at short notice or found out online. Amid the outrage on social media was a pragmatic tweet from Victoria Hamilton-Barritt who, as the uproariously acerbic Stepmother, earned the show’s only Olivier award nomination. Her message, with surfer emoji, said she’d be ready for other jobs the day after the curtain came down.
“Little did I know, by the end of the year I’d be working with Rufus Norris at the National,” she beams. Her audition for the fairytale Hex came in during her final weeks: “I jumped on it!” She was one of Cinderella’s principals, who originated her role and was staying on for another year. Was she told in person about its sudden closure? “I wasn’t, no,” she says, the hurt clear to hear. “A lot of us found out in a weird way. As much as I can feel sorry for myself, I can feel sorry for other people who had to call those decisions because it was like a pressure cooker.” Cinderella had been halted for Christmas, at great cost, amid rising Covid cases. Leaving the show was sad, she says, “but a bit of a relief”.
