There are few things on this Earth as reliable as the fact that at any moment, someone is working on a new Cinderella adaptation. This time it’s *spins giant wheel* Andrew Lloyd Webber! Wow, yes, now that you mention it, the world does need a rock opera Cinderella.
This news comes via the Hollywood Reporter. Webber is working with Tom MacRae (writer of book and lyrics for the musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) and Emerald Fennell (who’s taking over as lead writer on Killing Eve). He was very sparing with details:
He added that while it’s at too early a stage to go into greater detail, the setting will be neither a traditional fairy tale kingdom nor a recognizable contemporary location.
“It takes it away from the world of magic and fairy godmothers, but it’s not going to be anywhere nearly as modern as, say, Los Angeles in 2023,” he explained. “I can’t really say more about it at this point.”
“They have remade Cinderella into a completely modern, feisty girl,” Webber told THR. “Every piece of the story is followed, but it will be turned around so it’s not at all what you expect it to be. It just turns the whole thing around on itself.”
Are they truly the first people to attempt “Cinderella, but empowerment”? Of course not. Has Cinderella been made a million times for every format, including a musical written for television by Webber’s own idol, Richard Rogers and his creative partner Hammerstein? Yes. Am I absolutely going to cram my way into a matinee of this, because I was one of those girls who had a preteen Phantom of the Opera phase? You bet your butt I am.