Moments of magic, but not much sparkle

CINDERELLA

CINDERELLA

Lowry, to Saturday

THERE are at least a couple of breathtakingly lovely moments in this sumptuous Birmingham Royal Ballet ballet version of the classic story.

The first comes as Cinderella, in her white gown, enters the ballroom, silhouetted against a starry backdrop before the lights fully come up on her.

The second is a similar scene late in the ballet as Cinders and the prince start to dance their grand pas de deux and the sun rises behind them.

Other moments abound in this lavish production, first seen and an award-winner in Manchester in 2011 and living well up to BRB's reputation for lavish spectacle, a finely-played Prokofiev score and elegant dance.

There is the magical transformation of Cinderella's kitchen into a star-spangled night, complete with animal attendants and a magnificent coach; the mighty clock that dominates the stage as it ticks all the way up to midnight and the richly-decorated ballroom, to name only three.

The dance is offset - as you might expect from this story - by the comic antics of the Ugly Sisters, except here they are truly nasty stepsisters, named Skinny and Dumpy because that's physically what they are.

Above it all is the charming dancing of Jenna Roberts as Cinders, who transforms from kitchen dogsbody to elegant princess in a single evening; and the elegance of William Bracewell as the prince.

The only problem is that for all its richness and fine dance - choreographer David Bintley structures it in a rather old-fashioned, classical form with lots of dance and not much story - I wasn't excited by anything much, outside the beautiful set (John Macfarlane) and lighting (David A Finn).

Those who saw the original production relate their excitement at a magical night of ballet and I can see how this might have been the case: the evening is set up for wow factor and happy endings.

But this touring cast didn't seem to sparkle much last night and overall the wow factor was rather missing, reducing this clearly very expensively mounted work to just an averagely good, rather than special, occasion.

PG