Last Updated on October 4, 2025
Cinderella – a night of emotion, elation and magic.
The Royal Ballet’s Cinderella opened last night in time for a special Christmas family treat. In this production, you can find the most beautiful dancing, magical scenes, love – and disruption and humour from the Stepsisters – to temper all the good fairies bringing goodness and joy.
Cinderella, the famous fairytale written by the French fairytale author Charles Perrault (of the 17th Century), was premiered in 1948, and it is a three-act work choreographed by the Royal Ballet’s Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton, his first full-length ballet for the company. This is a co-production with The National Ballet of Canada and was recently updated for the current generation of dancers, having its premiere in 2023. It combines Ashton’s wonderfully unique choreography with the beautiful music of Sergey Prokofiev and brilliant staging and design, put together by a very talented creative team.
Tom Pye was the set designer who worked alongside the lighting designer David Finn and the video designer Finn Ross, to make the story fit together seamlessly, with Illusions by Chris Fisher, a member of The Magic Circle who did the illusions for the stage production of Harry Potter. Tom Pye also worked with Wendy Ellis Somes, who passes on the Ashton tradition, and Gary Avis, to perfect the staging. The beautifully detailed and colourful costumes were designed by Alexander Byrne, assisted by the Costume Manager, Caroline McCall. This all enabled the amazing stagecraft of the production.
On Opening Night, the role of Cinderella was danced by Marianella Nuñez and her Prince by Reece Clarke, who replaced the injured Vadim Muntagirov. It was a wonderful performance by them both; Nuñez is wonderful in this role, embodying Cinderella’s pure soul, and it showcased Reece’s excellent classical technique and elegance. There were many exceptional soloists, especially Mayara Magri as The Fairy Godmother, the Fairies of Spring (Isabella Gasparini), Summer (Mariko M. Sasaki), Autumn (Meaghan Grace Hinkis) and Winter (Claire Calvert), Gary Avis and Luca Acri as the Stepsisters, and Taisuke Nakao as the Jester. All the company put on a great show: the beautiful Stars who accompanied The Fairy Godmother, the refined Dancing Master (Téo Dubreuil), the stylish dancers/courtiers of the ballroom, The Prince’s handsome Friends (Leo Dixon, Benjamin Ella, Francisco Serrano, Giacomo Rovero), and the amusing Suitors dressed as Wellington (Lukas Bjǿrneboe Brӕndsrǿd) and Napolean (Joshua Junker).
Act One began setting the scene, with the front cloth showing the dilapidated-looking house of Cinderella’s father (well portrayed by Bennet Garside), with a staircase and a large clock above. We move into the old house, a main room with a large fireplace and mantelpiece, an arched ceiling, and big glass iron-worked windows. Here we meet the sisters sewing a shawl and Cinderella tending the fire and helping them to get ready as they push her about. Marianella Nuñez sensitively portrayed the loneliness and sadness of Cinderella who is missing her mother, enduring her father’s shutdown and her stepsisters’ bullying.
It was a beautiful scene full of longing when Cinderella, left behind and alone, can only dance with a broom, imagining the prince at the ball who could lead her to true love and a new life. Her lyrical arms in her port-de-bras, her precise footwork and gorgeous feet in their gold point shoes, lovely extensions and perfect characterisation are a real pleasure to behold. Gary Avis and Luca Acri as the Stepsisters were able to combine their meanness and bullying behaviour with humour and just enough redeemable appeal, to allow Cinderella to forgive them at the end of the ballet.
Mayara Magri was a beautiful, kind and magical Fairy Godmother and her solo to the mysterious music was strong in technique, expressive and dynamic, with lovely point work, arabesques, port-de-bras and side bends, conveying her warmth and beneficence as she shows Cinderella her new world; she told the story of what is going to happen to Cinderella clearly and elegantly. The four ‘Seasons’ Fairies all showed the character of their season delightfully, breezing through the difficulties of the choreography. Meaghan Grace Hinkis as the Fairy of Autumn was memorable as she dances almost off balance as if thrown about by the wind, spinning, pirouetting and bending, throwing and gathering leaves. Mariko M. Sasaki was wonderfully languid and expressive as the Fairy of Summer in her lovely hot pink and bright yellow dress, Isabella Gasparini, in a green and yellow dress, was bright and joyful as the Fairy of Spring and Claire Calvert was a lovely white icy Fairy of Winter, showing her wonderful technique and artistry.
The video enhancements were incredible here as they added to the scene painting and the atmosphere, adding magic coming out of the walls with seasonal meadow flowers and wildflowers for each fairy. The illusions were also wonderful for the transformation of the pumpkin into the splendid coach at the end of Act One; it was a wonderful magical moment when Cinderella departed from her house to the Palace in her coach with fairies and Stars in attendance, pulled by giant mice.
Act Two was set in the garden of the Palace, with an amazing backdrop of the huge palace (rather like Versailles) and a great staircase leading up to it with a long wide terrace. Cinderella’s arrival in her stunning white tutu and long white shimmering train held aloft by the Prince’s Friends, and her descent on point down the staircase is a true highlight of the ballet – the Grand Entrance – beautifully performed by Marianella Nuñez, with the assistance of her Prince as he takes her left hand; it feels as if everyone is holding their breath in these moments. The solos of Reece Clarke and Marianella Nuñez were wonderful in their strong technique, his strong physicality and charm and her radiance and musicality; her spinning turns around the stage were beautiful, and their pas de deux was breathtaking.
Taisuke Nakao was an excellent virtuosic Jester, his constant leaps and spins and highly gestured dancing a delight. The ballroom guests and the Prince’s Friends all enjoyed the lovely choreography of the court dances, and the Stepsisters were at their best, trying to woo the Suitors; they try to imitate a scene from The Sleeping Beauty (Gary Avis looks very funny held in a fish dive) and Swan Lake, and their dance with the oranges was hilarious. The costumes of the dancers in this act were elegant with great attention to detail, all timeless.
All is made well in the third act when the Prince discovers his beautiful Cinderella back in her own kitchen, with the other sparkling slipper. There is much hilarity at first as the Stepsisters try on the shoe, but the lovers cannot be thwarted any longer and are reunited. The stage opens onto a stunning white curved stairway to eternal happiness, and they ascend the steps into Paradise in a magical and touching scene.
The orchestra, ably conducted by Jonathan Lo, played the music beautifully and it was lovely to see them on stage at the end to receive their deserved applause.
This is a wonderful production full of love and joy, perfect for a Christmas treat, so hurry along to get a ticket. The Principals Mayara Magri and Anna Rose O’Sullivan will be making their debuts as Cinderella and Cesar Corrales, Calvin Richardson, Marcelino Sambé and Joseph Sissens will be making theirs as The Prince. There will also be a live Cinema relay on 10th December where Fumi Kaneko and William Bracewell will be dancing as Cinderella and her Prince.
Cinderella runs from 3 December until 16 January.
Cinderella
Royal Opera House
Bow Street,
London, WC2E 9DD
Looking for something different? For the antithesis to Cinderella, check out Ruination, running downstairs in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House
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