Review: Cinderella
West Australian Ballet
His Majesty’s Theatre, Saturday 22 November, 7.30pm
Review by Nina Levy
It’s been ten years since West Australian Ballet (WAB) last presented Jayne Smeulders’ 2011 interpretation of Prokofiev’s Cinderella. In my recollections it was very much aimed at younger audience members, with its lavish sprinkling of fairytale sparkle.
So it was a pleasure to find that this production of Cinderella is also generously endowed with humour that appeals as much to adults as children. In his program notes Guest Artistic Director David McAllister mentions that Smeulders has made some “special new additions for this season,” and sure enough, 2025’s Cinderella feels more substantial in terms of comedic detail.
I had forgotten, too, the pleasure of Prokofiev’s score, which offsets whimsical flute solos with melancholic string motifs, adding depth to the fairytale narrative presented on stage. Composed during the turbulent 1940s, the music was sensitively rendered here by West Australian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Jessica Gethin.
While Smeulders’ libretto doesn’t stray far from traditional versions of the tale, her decision to set the ballet in the 1930s adds another opportunity for sophistication; many of Allan Lees’ costumes and sets channel the austere glamour of that era.
But it’s the comedy infused in this rendition of Cinderella that keeps the audience engaged. Running at just over two hours, the ballet romps along, largely thanks to the two stepsisters and their stepmother.
On Saturday night stepsisters Polly Hilton and Beatrice Manser stole the show with their increasingly hilarious antics coupled with razor-sharp technique. Smeulders nods to the sharp angles and frenetic energy of 1930s jazz numbers, with Charleston-style footwork, grande battements and flapping hands aplenty, and Hilton and Manser delivered the goods with their shimmying, shaking and weapon-like leg extensions. As Cinderella’s stepmother, Indiana Scott gave a performance that belied her youth, elegant and haughty. Like Hilton and Manser, her comic timing was a joy to witness.
Against the melodramatics of her stepsisters and stepmother, it would be easy for Cinderella to feel like an afterthought, but Alexa Tuzil won the audience with her poignant, delicate manner, lithe arabesques and expansive balancés. As her Prince Charming, Juan Carlos Osma made an eye-catching entrance in the second act, and continued to impress with his confident and buoyant grande allegro.
For young and young-at-heart audience members, the Fairy Godmother is a dream come true, resplendent in her glittering tutu and tiara, with shining star-topped wand. In Smeulders’ story, the Fairy Godmother is Cinderella’s late mother and Kassidy Thompson brought a maternal calm to the role on Saturday night, from demeanour to technical delivery.
Smeulders’ Fairy Godmother leads Cinderella into an enchanted garden, in which she meets five birds rather than the traditional fairies. Prismatic lighting (by designer Jon Buswell and associate designer Benjamin Fry) lends a touch of the psychedelic to the garden, setting the scene for a series of athletic bird solos that feel more than a little camp, a sensation heightened by the presence of a couple of near-naked fauns. A standout performer in this scene was Joshua Ballinger with his breath-taking grande jeté à la seconde.
Together with Heath Kolka, Ballinger impressed again in Act II’s ball scene. As the Prince’s brothers the pair were notable for their eye-catching allegro and accomplished partnering of the stepsisters. Also memorable in this scene were the moments before midnight, in which Smeulders has created a sense of time collapsing as the dancers circle and fold, swirling around the panicking Cinderella.
Smeulders finishes the ballet with a sculptural pas de deux for Cinderella and the Prince, against Buswell and Fry’s glamorous moonlit, star-filled sky. Perhaps inspired by the geometry of the art deco period, many of the lifts in this duet are angular and unforgiving but Tuzil and Osma gave an impeccable performance.
Perfect for a pre-Christmas family treat, Cinderella is a fun-filled finale to McAllister’s two years as guest artistic director, and showcases a company that is poised for its next chapter under Leanne Stojmenov.
- Nina Levy
Cinderella continues until 14 December.