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Controversial New Cinderella Show Faces Vicious Backlash

animated cinderella stares at bad cinderella musical actress

When the new Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway musical called Bad Cinderella had its opening night on Friday, March 24, many other Broadway stars (including Frozen on Broadway star Caroline Bowman) sang the show’s praises, and many musical or Disney princess fans enthusiastically liked or retweeted social media posts about the new Broadway musical.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Bad Cinderella on Broadway (@badcinderellabway)

Unfortunately, that enthusiasm does not seem to be lasting now that the musical has made its debut on Broadway! Critics are viciously doing what they do best (i.e. criticizing) and wasting no time in using the name of the musical to emphasize its disappointing effect on audiences.

The New York Times critic has actually recommended that audiences bring both ear plugs and “eye plugs”, so that they can not only avoid the music and dialogue, but also the costumes from the show!

A theater critic from the New York Post has labeled the Bad Cinderella musical as “a wacko storybook dumpster fire” as well, and according to a theater critic from Yahoo!, Bad Cinderella looks cheap, with wobbling, fragile-looking set decoration, more akin to a British pantomime than Broadway show”.

cinderella

Credit: Disney Parks Blog

Most people associate the name “Cinderella” with the popular and classic Disney princess Cinderella — both in the original animated Disney movie and the more recent live-action adaptation that starred English rose Lily James — so when Bad Cinderella first came on the scene, many Disney princess fans were intrigued.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Bad Cinderella on Broadway (@badcinderellabway)

The marketing for the show emphasized this new Cinderella’s unconventional appearance and her less-than-ladylike mannerisms — even more so than the Camila Cabello Cinderella movie that attracted so much negative attention in 2021 — but now that the Broadway musical has made its debut, it sounds like this tough new Cinderella might only be impressive on a superficial level!

Critics are not attacking the actress who is playing Cinderella specifically (who happens to be Linedy Genao, a Latina actress and singer who is making her Broadway debut with the show and who is reportedly “the first Latina performer to originate a leading role in a Lloyd Webber musical”) or the actor who plays her love interest, Prince Sebastian (played by Jordan Dobson).

However, the new Bad Cinderella musical is, unfortunately, being referred to as “a strange mess” that features a lackluster version of a Disney princess and that “wants to be both archly contemporary and fairytale-fantastical, and tumbles bizarrely into the abyss between both”.

Had you heard about this new Cinderella, or is this a complete surprise to you?

About Sharon

Sharon is a writer and animal lover from New England. Sharon's two main focuses in her work are Disney's correlations with pop culture and the significance of Disney princesses (which was the basis for her college thesis). When she's not writing about Disney, Sharon spends her time singing, dancing, and cavorting with woodland creatures!

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