Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella to close in West End next month

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cinderella will close in the West End next month less than a year after its premiere.

The show, which is being staged at the Gillian Lynne Theatre and has been hit with Covid-19 related disruption since the start, will play its final performance on June 12, according to its website.

Last July, Lloyd Webber said he was determined to open Cinderella in London and had at that stage ignored “siren voices” suggesting he moves it to Broadway.

The website for the show says anyone who has tickets booked for after June 12 will not lose their money.

In the frequently asked questions section of the website, under a question about bookings after June 12, it says: “If you have booked directly through our website or LW Theatres, you will be contacted shortly to discuss your options, but don’t worry, if you’re unable to make an alternative performance, you will not lose your money.

“As you can imagine, the box office team are busy rebooking everyone, so please don’t contact them until they’ve contacted you.

“If you have booked via a ticket agent, they will be in contact with you in the next few days.”

The Cinderella premiere took place in August last year, having been scheduled to take place the previous month but delayed due to Covid isolation protocols.

The show opened with an audience capacity of 50% after the impresario rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s offer for the show to be included in the coronavirus live events pilot scheme.

Then in December, Cinderella was stopped due to “Covid-related absences”, alongside London productions of hit musicals Hamilton and The Lion King.

At the time, Lloyd Webber said it is “simply heartbreaking” to see the theatre industry “decimated” by Omicron cancellations, adding “no-one in the Government listens”.

He postponed Cinderella until 2022 “to avoid more disruption” as the number of Covid-19 cases increased across the country.

Written by The Crown star Emerald Fennell and starring Carrie Hope Fletcher, Cinderella is described as a “complete reinvention” of the classic fairytale, and is based on an original idea by Fennell.