Performance: Cinderella

Aotea Centre

Review: Bernadette Rae

The story is an old favourite, with little scope for surprises. The production, with original choreography by the late Jack Carter and costumes and design by Kristian Fredrikson, is splendidly garish, but on its third outing.

Rumour has it that something else was planned for this spot in the Royal New Zealand Ballet's schedule, but it fell over, and Cinderella was slotted in: an obvious choice for Christmas and in fine tradition.

It might have been a bit ho-hum. But out of this Cinderella's apron pocket pop more than enough moments of pure magic to pep up even the most jaded of ballet appetites.

In the first act, the two zany stepsisters are a comic delight, clowning their way through their preparations for the ball, especially their dancing lesson.

The glittering gondola and Cinderella's grand entrance would make the sourest cynic sigh, and the lovers' slow dance - early in the ballroom scene, while the rest of the guests whirl and twirl to the music's fastest tempo - is spellbinding.

The terrible ticking of the clock on the countdown to midnight is tautly tangible.

And the stage, suddenly bare but backlit by a brilliant starscape for the lovers' final duet, is achingly romantic.

On Wednesday, the gorgeous Larissa Wright was Cinderella and Ou Lu her handsome prince.

There is no one who can wear the white tights with such authority as the masterly Ou, nor carry off these royal roles with such dignified integrity.

But there was definite challenge in the leaps-and-bounds department from his two male cohorts, Graham Fletcher and the young and very talented Cameron McMillan.

Alternate casts are scheduled to perform under the company's new structure, which has dispensed with a formal hierarchy. Jane Turner, Sonya Behrnes and Natasha Purcell are waiting in the wings for their turn in the glass slippers and Stephen Wellington, McMillan and Douglas McCubbin rotate as the Prince.

But the night belonged to Wright, definitely a dancer at the peak of her powers, and to the masterly Ou Lu.