Soho Cinders

George Stiles and Anthony Drewe are in a very strong position in the West End. They are prolific new musical theatre writers who have worked hard over the years and have developed a solid reputation although if truth be told they have arguably never scored a popular hit. Their greatest success to date has been adding additional material to the already popular score of Mary Poppins. Their appeal however has never really stretched to a successful long run despite a number of amiable, smaller shows such as Honk! The Ugly Duckling and Just So, their recent Betty Blue Eyes was a damp squib that failed to attract popular attention.

Their reworking of the Cinderella story, Soho Cinders had been in development for some time with various workshops and a well-received concert version taking place last year. The problem is that the plot of Soho Cinders feels as if it has been written by a couple of sixth-form school boys out to shock. The Soho they depict is more rose tinted than pink, with rent boys who don't have sex, closeted politicians with astoundingly understanding wives and strip-club managed by sexually frustrated, overweight women.

The daft thing is that it could have been so much better. The Cinderella story is a rich multi textured tale that has been used again and again through the years. It is the most filmed story in the history of movie-making not to mention ballets and of course the countless pantomimes that exist. So where did they go wrong? I am wont to believe that it was partially to do with the development of fairly unlikeable and unlikely heroes. Rather than have their Cinders as a reluctant sex-worker, forced unwillingly to go on the game to help fund his further education, our hero is given the 'vanilla' option and we are asked to believe that the sex never really takes place. As for the new Prince Charming, making a politician the hero is always going to be a stretch, especially one who is in the closet whilst engaged to a charming and intelligent woman.

On the plus side, Robbie’s (the Soho Cinders of the title) step-sisters are a great pair of comedy grotesques and thankfully Stiles and Drewe draw on them for many of the lighter and invariably more successful moments in the show. There is also the villainous political advisor William George to add conflict into the narrative and the sweet Velcro, the Soho Cinders version of the Buttons character – d’ya get it?!

Stiles and Drewe have many other irons in the fire, not least an adaptation of one of my favourite movies Soapdish – based on a Sally Field, Kevin Klein vehicle from the early 1990’s. Hopefully, it will capture the public’s imagination and give them the popular hit they so richly deserve.