Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella Review
March 1, 2025 | Birmingham Hippodrome – Birmingham, England
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella starts with a vignette of a funeral: the funeral of Cinderella’s mother. It is a small scene, not only in length at only a minute or two, but also in size, as a black frame cuts the stage down significantly.
But it opens the ballet with a powerfully somber tone. From the beginning, this version of Cinderella is not simply a children’s fairytale or pantomime.
This isn’t to say that this ballet is not child-friendly. It doesn’t go so far as to include the more bloody and gruesome plot points that the original fairytale would. But it is a ballet that appeals to all ages, both children and adults.
Animal characters dance and turn into Cinderella’s travel attendants. The stepsisters squabble with each other in vain over the attention of the Prince. But even if at one moment the audience is laughing at the foolishness, at the next they are gripped by Cinderella’s loneliness.
Birmingham Royal Ballet's Cinderella Review
What gives Cinderella this depth is the fact that the ballet takes Cinderella’s struggles seriously. Sir David Bintley CBE, former Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet and choreographer of Cinderella, was intentional in how he wanted to approach the story and give Cinderella’s journey more depth.
For example, he cast the stepsisters with female dancers rather than male dancers, a common practice for other Cinderella productions, and reimagined the choreography in order to give the titular character more attention and time to shine.
The beautiful designs of John Macfarlane echo this approach as they make a strong distinction between Cinderella’s somber reality and the limitless possibilities of dreams and magic.
Much of Act I takes place in Cinderella’s home, the basement, or perhaps more accurately, her prison. The colours are grey and bleak, and the windows looming high above Cinderella seem to let in little light and make her seem even smaller.
Standing in contrast to this reality is an alternative: hope and love. Macfarlane represents this hope through a star motif throughout the ballet. When the Fairy Godmother first appears, the house breaks apart, revealing a dark, star-studded night sky, literally opening up the world to Cinderella.
Along with this, Macfarlane’s painted backdrops add an otherworldly touch, drawing on the fairytale’s magical aspects; it looks like you might be reading the story from a book.
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On the other hand, Cinderella’s transformation for the ball did not stand out to me compared to other scenes in the ballet. It feels disjointed, with multiple interludes breaking up the action.
Although the four dancers portraying the fairies for each season execute the steps well, the choreography and musical interpretation did not click for me.
The transformation of Cinderella’s gown, carriage, and servants is also hidden away behind an ensemble of dancers dressed as starlight rather than taking center stage, which feels like a missed opportunity to include some interesting practical effects – a different type of magic, you could say.
Regardless, Cinderella, portrayed by Momoko Hirata, is hopeful and kind-hearted, even at her lowest points.
From the way she reminisces about her mother and yearns for more in the basement, or when she first steps into the palace for the ball, Hirata is not just ‘going through the moves.’ She embodies all the emotions Cinderella is feeling. When she pauses to admire the ball as she first arrives, her awe feels real and well-deserved.
Hirata is captivating in her role, and it’s no surprise the Prince, portrayed by Mathias Dingman, is enraptured by her immediately. Their two pas de deux, one in Act II and again in Act III, are dreamy, as Hirata floats through intricate turns and suspends above the stage with impressive lifts from Dingman.
In these two duets, it feels as though the couple has been transported to another world.
Sergei Prokofiev’s dynamic score reinforces this dreamy quality. Along with the pas de deux, I particularly enjoyed the waltzes in Act II with the ensemble sweeping through different formations as the main characters come on and off stage repeatedly with their own small interactions.
By diversifying the music and choreography in this way, it gives the sense the ball is expansive, taking place across multiple rooms. As Cinderella dances amongst the ensemble and the Prince chases her, there is playfulness and grandeur as the young girl explores and enjoys the ball.
Then, the classical waltz and pas contrast in the best way with the final moments of Act II when the clock strikes midnight.
In the final scene, the choreography becomes less classical and more unconventional, as the ensemble embodies the clock, sharply ticking down the seconds. This vision, along with the unnerving, unraveling music, signals Cinderella now has to go back to her reality, and she is distraught.
Act III is short, wrapping up the story quickly as Cinderella puts on the slippers and dances the final pas with the Prince into a moonlit sky, having the same dreamy, romantic quality as their first dance together. It feels like a perfect end to show Cinderella’s triumph over evil.
I would have enjoyed seeing more interactions between Cinderella and her stepmother, as most of the antagonistic behavior comes from the stepsisters. Cruel but cartoonish, the stepsisters provide most of the comedic relief across the three acts, whether it’s at their dance lesson or at the ball, and the two dancers are excellent actresses, constantly eliciting laughter from the audience.
Meanwhile, the stepmother is aloof and mostly focused on her daughters rather than tormenting Cinderella herself.
It also would have been gratifying to see these characters’ reactions to Cinderella at the ball and be in awe of this beautiful stranger. Similarly, when Cinderella successfully wears the ballet slippers and wins the Prince, the reaction from the stepmother and stepsisters is small and fades quickly into the background.
However, I suppose Cinderella’s happy ending shouldn’t come from beating the bad guys, but rather from the satisfaction of staying true to yourself and finding happiness on your own. That’s probably how Cinderella would see it!
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella explores themes of loneliness, love, and hope. By taking its subject matter seriously, the choreography, the score, and the designs come together to make a powerful contrast between dark and light, cruelty and love, and this in turns makes the ending all the more satisfying when love finally triumphs over hate.
Although the ballet has finished its run in Birmingham, the company will be performing Cinderella across the UK and eventually in Japan, and it is sure to enrapture audiences of all ages anywhere it goes.
Featured Photo of Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s Momoko Hirata in David Bintley’s Cinderella. Photo @ Roy Smiljanic.
