Picture: Tristram Kenton
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit new musical Cinderella will hold a special gala performance next month in support of Malala Yousafzai’s work to empower women and girls across the world.
Announcing the fundraiser, Lloyd Webber said: “I am an enormous admirer of Malala. She is an extraordinary person and you can imagine my delight when I discovered that she loved musical theatre. Malala and her fund work to empower women and girls to be the best version of themselves and the people they truly want to be. Recent events in Afghanistan, and the worsening of the global refugee crisis, which will be inevitably exacerbated by climate change in the years to come, have brought into sharp focus the importance of Malala’s work.
“We wanted to do this gala performance of Cinderella because our heroine is a strong-willed and mischievous young woman whose lesson is: don’t change to please others. I want to thank everyone who supports this gala and enables us to do more to help women and girls to achieve their dreams.”
All monies raised by the performance at the Gillian Lynne Theatre on 22 November will be donated to the Malala Fund. The gala event will also feature the work of a contemporary Afghan artist, Shamsia Hassani, and the stories of female Afghan musicians.
Thanking the composer and the Cinderella cast and creative team, Malala Yousafzai said: “Since age 10, I’ve been fighting for a world where every girl can learn and lead. But in the past two years, girls in many countries have faced enormous setbacks to their education – from Covid to economic pressures to conflict and displacement. I am grateful to my friend Andrew for all his support, and I want to thank the cast and crew of Cinderella for arranging this special performance to support Malala Fund.”
Commenting on the inspirational woman who is the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, Cinderella’s writer Emerald Fennell said: “Malala Yousafzai is a true hero and a beacon of light to so many of us. It is an honour to be able to support her work in any small way, especially at such an urgent and terrible time for the women and girls around the world.”
Based on an original idea by Killing Eve screenwriter and actress Fennell the new version of the classic fairy tale features a new score by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by multi-award-winning writer David Zippel (City of Angels, The Goodbye Girl).
Reuniting Lloyd Webber with director Laurence Connor and choreographer JoAnn Hunter – the team behind Cinderella’s predecessor at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, School of Rock and the hit London Palladium revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – the musical stars Carrie Hope Fletcher (Les Misérables, Heathers, The Addams Family) in the title role and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt (A Chorus Line, In The Heights) as the Stepmother.
Angela Thomas
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