Review: ‘Bad Cinderella’ on Broadway gets the title it deserves

We’ve got a little Broadway Cinderella busload that we can compare to the one dreamed up by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and company in “Bad Cinderella,” which officially opens Thursday night at the Imperial Theatre. (David Zippel and Emerald Vinyl are the lyricist and bookwriter.) Two others, Cinderella from the recently closed “Into the Woods,” and the former D.C.’s Once Upon a Time, which means gigs that Waiting circling back to the pumpkins can be double parked around midtown Manhattan.

“Bad Cinderella” is the cowardly and cruelest of the many. Beefcake is a special day in the fairy tale Belleville, where shirtless men gather around the Queen (Grace McLean) like the dancers in a Madonna music video. With the exception of the polished evil of Carole Carmelo as the sinister stepmother, the production helmed by Lawrence Connor and choreographed by JoAnn M. The score, scored by Lloyd Webber and Zippel, has a very predictable supply of storytelling power. Even the supposed musical morality, which seems not to be all, makes no sense when the actress portraying Cinderella is indisputably beautiful from the start.

King Charles needed a coronation song. Andrew Lloyd Webber recalled.

The show heralds what is shaping up as a strange spring on Broadway, a revue set to debut in April, “Room” with Tony winner Adrian Warren (“Tina”), abruptly closed in rehearsals and an underwhelming revival of Bob Fosse’s “Dancin'” officially opens in Music Box Theatre.

“Dancin'” unfolds as advertised: It’s a revival of the Foss dance anthology that became a hit the first time around, running for 1,774 performances from 1978 to 1982. Wayne Cilento, original cast member of “The Chorus Line” who went on to make a career As director and choreographer, he took on the task of reinventing Fosse’s sensual style. He recruited an agile, singing and dancing corps. But somehow this scattershot compilation show feels dated. It’s more drizzle than Razzle Dazzle.

An extended homage to New York City in Act 1 gives way in Act 2 to some odd-eared sequences, including an arcing interlude called “The Female Star Spot,” built around Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again.” And the patriotic mix that follows, featuring “When Johnny Comes Walking Home” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” is as bland a routine as a college halftime show.

I’ve still seen “Dancin'” a dozen times more than I’ve had to sit through “Bad Cinderella” again. The absurdity of Going Broken continually plunges the show into juvenile antics (although its gruffness graciously ceases to enlist). The creative team could have taken a lesson from “& Juliet,” a slicker, more fun British import two blocks away, backed by pop songwriters by Max Martin and others.

It’s the difference in free floats between gentle and desperate devils. One senses the gifted spirits at sea in “Bad Cinderella,” including Genao, whose Cinderella suffers from a case of ambivalence: after vandalizing the city’s new statue of Prince Charming, she returns to a life of sweeping the floors of her stepmother. she wonders why everyone is so behind her for being nasty; She is actually very helpful.

Jordan Dobson plays amiably as Charming’s younger brother, Sebastian, and Sammy Gayle and Morgan Higgins are suitably loud in the roles of the half-brother of the stock. On such a sporadic evening, you kind of wish Christina Acosta Robinson’s Fairy Godmother Christina Acosta Robinson’s beautification skills had more focus in the writer’s room.

Bad CinderellaMusic by Andrew Lloyd Webber Lyrics by David Zippel Book Emerald Vinyl. Directed by Lawrence Connor. Choreography, Joan M. Hunter; Sets and costumes, Gabriela Telesova; lighting, Bruno Boet; Slim, Gareth Owen. With Trejoni Shepherd, Ben Lanham. about 2½ hours. At the Imperial Theatre, 249 W. 45th St. , New York. Telecharge.com.

dancer Choreography by Bob Fosse. Direction and Musical Theatre, Wayne Cilento. ST, Robert Brill; costumes by Reed Barthelme and Harriet Jung; Lighting, David Grill; Slim, Peter Hilinsky; Video, Vin Ross; Orchestra, Jim Abbott; New Music and Dance Arrangements, David Dapone; Music direction, Justin Hornback. about 2½ hours. at the Music Box Theatre, 239 W 45th Street, New York. Telecharge.com.