A misleading title and opening post.
No not a male Cinderella in drag or even tights, but a complete reworking of the plot while maintaining the original music..
Christopher Hampson’s lively and inventive choreography for Prokofiev’s Cinderella has become a celebrated part of the Scottish Ballet repertoire. However, this latest revival – retitled Cinders! – makes ballet history with a radical, gender-flipped twist: audiences won’t find out until the curtain goes up whether the hero will be a woman sought out by her prince or (in a world first) a man tracked down by his princess.
In this relocation and recasting of the classic fairytale, Cinders is the orphan child of the Roses, ill-fated drapers whose store is destroyed in a fire. The business is then taken over by a wealthy, American heiress called Mrs Thorne who arrives in Scotland with her spoilt offspring (daughters Morag and Flossie, and son Tarquin) in tow. On press night, the titular Rose among Thornes was performed by male dancers (Charles Waller as young Cinders and principal dancer Bruno Micchiardi as the elder). In terms of both the narrative and the dance itself, the gender twist is smooth and feels uncontroversial
So move along, nothing to get worked up about. .
