A modern Cinderella retelling trades royal balls for Soho scandal this January.
There’s a noticeable gap in Aberdeen’s theatre scene for those that are part of it. You age out of youth companies, but maybe the established amateur groups don’t quite fit. A TO Z Aberdeen formed last year to fill that space, and they’re launching with something ambitious: ‘Soho Cinders’, a musical comedy that’s rarely been staged anywhere in the UK outside London.
The show, written by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, relocates the Cinderella story to the grubbier side of the West End. The fairy godmothers are wealthy business tycoons. ‘Buttons’ has become ‘Velcro’. And losing a phone causes considerably more trouble than misplacing a glass slipper.
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Building from scratch
Director Joel Simpson admits the lack of previous productions to draw from has been “a bit daunting” but says it pushed the team toward genuine creative problem-solving. With no staging traditions to borrow from, everything had to be built fresh.
The founding team of six held two days of auditions and welcomed 25 cast members to the new company. Among them is Robbie Mackenzie, back in Aberdeen after training in Glasgow and five years singing on cruise ships. Megan Fraser, who studied at Guildford School of Acting, plays Velcro opposite him.
Politics, scandal and a rickshaw
Underneath the comedy, ‘Soho Cinders’ deals in recognisable territory: a mayoral campaign built on lies, a family launderette under threat, and characters working out who they actually are. Simpson says the production will reflect “the country’s affairs in 2026” and promises audiences will get “up close and personal” with the cast.
There’s also a real rickshaw appearing on stage, provided by Aberdeen’s branch of Cycling Without Age. It’s an odd detail that might end up being the thing people remember.
Robbie Mackenzie and Megan Fraser (left) play the lead roles, with direction from Joel Simpson, musical direction from Alisdair Sneden and assistant direction from Erin Tierney (right)
A West End link
Though the show is unfamiliar here, it has a local connection. West End performer Amy Lennox, who trained in Aberdeen as a teenager, originated one of the leading roles in the 2012 London production.
A TO Z will stage the show at Aberdeen Arts Centre, joining the 34 other companies who programme work there each year. For a group focused on giving younger performers somewhere to go, it seems like a reasonable place to start.
‘Soho Cinders’ runs from 21–24 January. It’s a first outing for a company that clearly has plans beyond it.
