I can't believe he had the audacity to write that letter. That cast deserved way more than a half-hearted "thanks"

Still to this day Lauren Byrne's reaction to "costly mistake" makes me so happy.

I've been a fan of Andrew for a long time now (25 years in fact) and this just makes my heart sick. For him to call it a 'costly mistake' was such a slap in the face to everyone involved and to be honest VERY unprofessional.

@laurelp6905

2 жыл бұрын

Costly mistake as he literally sits in his manor home, “plexiglas houses”, me thinks! Costly to the cast, not him. Except for his reputation which turned all that “We aren’t opening until the entire West End opens”. What a load of crap bc NOW we see what he is really like. Altruistic he is not.

@froggitgang

2 жыл бұрын

When was it?

@hiyaitselia

Жыл бұрын

@@froggitgang 8:30

Their faces just say it all.....can't believe what he said in that letter and they were barely holding it together. Good luck Andrew to getting these people to work with you again.

@danjon8799

2 жыл бұрын

The thing was all the thanks should have been about them because if it wasn't for the cast ALW wouldn't have a show. And yet he still made it about him. Utterly disgraceful behaviour. I will never respect him again.

@cassieosbourne7666

2 жыл бұрын

Getting anyone to work with him again. All this whole saga has really done is make actors say “yeah I’m never auditioning for a show he’s involved in”

@IHARumor

2 жыл бұрын

Oh I’m willing to bet money that NONE of the people on that stage are ever gonna audition for a show he’s involved with ever again. Unless it’s a long running production like Phantom perhaps. But maybe not even that. They really were treated terribly by that man.

@cassieosbourne7666

2 жыл бұрын

@@IHARumor less than terribly

@HighonBoots

2 жыл бұрын

Or ANYONE to work with him again

Boos were well deserved ALW. I have respected you for over 30 years. No more. There are no excuses for your actions except as a petulant child.

Credit to the director for having the guts to even read the letter. I would've said sod it and ripped it up... Imagine the cheers that would've had 😂

The show was poorly written but the cast made it work!! They were wonderful, talented and will hopefully go further with their musical theatre careers and they did NOT deserve how they were treated by Andrew 😒😒

Even the cast were shocked at some thing Andrew said… 🫢

@Ryan-fg8gk

2 жыл бұрын

Lauren brynes face says it all when she is laughing and tells a cast member next to her he said "costly mistake" (8:38)

i have built up so much resentment that seeing the casts reaction to the letter is quite entertaining. like the guy on the right at 7:13 encouraging the booing would defo be me if i was in this show 😭😭

the creative director immediately jumping to defend andrew... he knew that letter was gonna be received poorly lmao

I feel for the cast, Andrew should have been there in person. I love Carrie! And will continue to follow her. Hope the rest of the cast find other jobs and they can move past the horrid closure of the show and how they handled informing the cast. The fact that Carrie heard it through people in the cast and social media was absolutely awful! She as a lead deserved so much more respect than what was given.

lauren byrne i love you so much.. her face when “costly mistake” was read out 😭😭

What was on with the phrase “costly mistake”?!? The cast and crew deserve significantly better than that letter! The grace they have shown in the midst of all of this speaks volumes of the character of each cast and crew member, and the letter speaks volumes to Andrew’s priorities.

You know they are all probably huge fans of him and were so excited to be in his production. How sad.

Let's hope everyone already involved - who poured their heart and soul into this production - and the incredibly talented people who had yet to join the team find new jobs soon! They all deserve the best offers! Sending love and support.❤️

lol you can see Laura **Byrne (the cast member who laughed during ALW's letter) (edit: corrected her name) repeat "a COSTLY MISTAKE" to the person standing next to her. what a class act is ALW. /s

@JJ-nt6px

2 жыл бұрын

Lauren byrne*

@Elphiyero10

2 жыл бұрын

@@JJ-nt6px Ah, my mistake, thank you!

As somebody who wants to be an actress later in my life someday, swear to god some directors need to get their heads out of their ass and actually get important information OUT to the WHOLE cast BEFORE giving the cast false hope. I mean, imagine getting told you’re getting your first debut, but also not knowing the show is closing until another cast mate tells you! Acting is a job for MANY people. I would’ve lost it if this happened to me, so I understand why everyone was angry.

Loving the reactions from young Santa. Him and the lady next to him.

@dd17900

Жыл бұрын

That lady is Lauren Bryne. She is now Miss Honey in Matilda

ALW wrote a half-assed show to gain popularity, then every time people treated it like the mediocre show it is he blamed someone else. The cast, the government, covid. He has no respect for any of the cast and crew who did whatever they could to make Cinderella work, he didn't even tell them when the show closed. I've lost all respect for him.

Andrew Lloyd Webber said he wanted to go to prison to be able to open his theatres again and now he has been letting a whole crew down in-mid's of a pandemic. Andrew talked like a politician. He was fully believing in the project that he now suddenly calls a 'costly mistake'?

@nickiparry8029

2 жыл бұрын

What an incredibly sad way for this show to end, just want to say thank you to the cast for their hard work.x

I know ALW gave a half-hearted, general "thanks" to the cast, but how could he not give a special mention to Carrie? ALW has gone down in my estimations.

@redfirefixfox9611

2 жыл бұрын

To be fair, ALW has a track record of this kind of stuff. If you haven’t heard the ALW and Patti LuPone story, it sounds eerily similar to this

@lucyakroyde9857

2 жыл бұрын

@@redfirefixfox9611 Oh really? Nope, I haven't heard that story, will have to look it up!

@redfirefixfox9611

2 жыл бұрын

@@lucyakroyde9857 So many years ago, Patti was in the West End cast of Sunset Boulevard and it was in her contract that she would be in the Broadway production when the show transferred to America. But then, ALW decided to recast her with Glenn Close who was playing the same role in LA. So then Patti went and threw a massive tantrum and destroyed her dressing room and then successfully sued ALW for one million dollars then used the money to build a pool in her house which she named the “ALW memorial pool” since he was dead to her

@Futures_End

2 жыл бұрын

@@redfirefixfox9611 woah

@lucyakroyde9857

2 жыл бұрын

@@redfirefixfox9611 Good for her! I don't understand why ALW thinks its okay to treat people like this, to take peoples jobs away without even informing them himself. Actors show so much dedication, performing through illness, injury, & personal hardships; yet this man can’t even give them the proper recognition and respect they deserve.

Even the cast was like 'what the f*ck is this letter'?

“A costly mistake”?! Wow. Really? That’s the message to send to everyone who’s worked on the show?!

If this is what ALW wanted to say then he should have published it as a press statement after the show closed. Really appalling way to end for the cast, so cruel to make them stand there and listen to words that had nothing to do with them.

Coming up to a year on. I would’ve seen this if it hadn’t closed prematurely. Gotta say the curtain call music is a total BANGER!

I'm so sad that it's already closed. This is a phenomenal cast and they all did amazing and they should've reserved better. Also great quality. I also love how when the director said he's got a letter from Andrew lloyd webber the entire theatre started booing.

Not understanding why he mentioned 'I once wrote a song with Jim Steinman'? 😅 He's so out of touch. Andrew - I have loved musical theatre since I was a toddler, and some of your shows literally helped to raise me and got me through some of my darkest times. However, I am so disappointed with this whole thing. Without your cast you wouldn't have a show, you wouldn't have your millions in revenue from theatre performances - to only briefly mention them and then go on to gush about yourself is despicable. The cast have worked so hard to present the best show possible night after night, despite us just coming out of a worldwide pandemic. They deserve more than what they've been given in so many ways - they have now lost their jobs, and you're not taking any responsibility that perhaps your material wasn't bringing in audiences! not to mention the countless people who gave up other jobs to go into the new run to just be dropped at the last minute. To the cast and crew of this show, thank you so much for doing what you do, theatre is so important and nobody gives you the credit you deserve 💕

@jessicap3139

2 жыл бұрын

It was such a random thing to say! As if “yeah this failed but that’s not my fault, look how great I am!” And then to disrespect the cast and production team like that? I’ve lost all my respect for the man

@anarchistplayground8217

2 жыл бұрын

It seems really shoe-horned in. I think what he was trying to reference was the song he wrote with Steinman was called No Matter What which has a verse where all the lines begin with If Only which would add up with his speech going onto say If Only Covid hadn’t … etc. Still really shoe-horned in and, if I’m right, a bit arrogant to assume people would know the reference and in general cowardly to send some poor lackey with a letter calling them all a costly mistake

This honestly made me lose SO MUCH respect for Andrew. It’s absolutely disgusting and this incredible cast and crew deserved better. Without them, there wouldn’t have been such a fabulous show. I hope and pray every single one of these incredible people involved go on to do amazing work with a boss who respects them.

ALW should take responsibility for both his unprofessionalism in announcing the shows closure, the way he treated this cast and also for the writing a pretty awful musical, it was disjointed right from the beginning even this stunningly talented cast couldn't make it fully work.

If he was really passionate over this very project, he would have poured his heart-blood in more than blaming it all on the government.

My heart BREAKS that I never got to see this live

@IHARumor

2 жыл бұрын

Same. Such an amazing cast. Also breaks my heart that we never got to see the upcoming cast in these roles. I don’t know all of the people that were cast but I looked up some of the ones I didnt know and they are all crazy talented. The girl who was gonna replace Carrie as Cinderella is absolutely terrific and I hope she gets cast as a West End lead again someday soon.

@borntobebookish7507

2 жыл бұрын

Same

What does a billionaire need a recovery fund for when he can afford to backup a show for a while?

It. Might. Have. Been. A. Costly. Mistake?!

Seeing Carrie Cry at 2:37 just breaks my heart ):

I hope that Broadway do not even give him the chance to bring this show over there... After his truly despicable & unprofessional behaviour with the announcement of the closing of this show, he really has shot his credibility now. Not sorry about it. I am so sorry to the cast & the former incoming cast that have lost paid work because of this, hope that changes for all of them soon.

@scswp6945

2 жыл бұрын

I very much doubt it will go to Broadway. That would be an even more ‘costly mistake’.

Terrible letter. But it should be noted that he said opening the musical earlier (with all the Covid restrictions) was a costly mistake, not that the musical itself was a costly mistake

What on Earth was he thinking reading that letter? If he had half a brain, he would have read it before the show and called ALW and said “yeah, I’m not doing it”

@IHARumor

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah lots of people are (rightfully) blaming ALW for writing that letter in the first place, but I also don’t really understand why the director (who clearly likes the cast) read the full letter out loud. If I were him I would have either refused to read it or just edited out the hurtful parts like calling the show a ‘costly mistake’. The letter clearly hurt a lot of the cast members. Though maybe the director just didn’t want to cover for ALW and wanted the audience to know what ALW wrote, which I can also kind of respect 🙈

@jparadisetheatre

2 жыл бұрын

@@IHARumor Connor's entire career these days is built upon being Webber's, and to a nominally lesser extent Cameron Mackintosh's, patsy. He has been right there as an active participant in stripping the work of others and abusing their creative contributions to numerous shows held by those two men as he happily cashes the paycheck. Sure he may like the cast well enough, but reading this speech is his entire current career.

I would have ripped the letter immediately after reading it

Laurens reaction to him saying it may of been a costly mistake, I'm surprised she didnt say anything else. Wonder how long it'll be before bad cinderella on broadway has its final performance and it's a "costly mistake"

@MBM1117727

Жыл бұрын

As it turns out not very long! It's closing next month!

I never got to see this production, because I couldn’t afford a flight to London.

The show was terrible but I love the cast. They worked with what they had and the fact that ALW didn’t show his face speaks VOLUMES

Quite funny. The cast remains relatively composed, but not composed enough to hide their agreement and delight with the audience. I almost feel bad for Laurence Connor. His entire career these days is built on being Webber's minion and fall guy...

Time for the entire theater community to stop giving ALW airtime and space. What a disappointment. The cast and crew were total class acts to hold it together as well as they did.

7:11 absolutely hilarious

The Director is great.

I'm just glad that the audience had the cast's back at this bullshit letter.

Well this was doomed to fail. They already had the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella that was successful. To me it felt like wait I can do better and he didn’t it’s like when Hollywood makes 2 of the same Kind of movies and ones a hit and one flops. But I hope all the cast finds work and that whatever it has is a huge hit.

Not being funny but in the letter he said he once worked with Jim Stienman, wtf does that have to do with this show??

@TheBeautifulDisaster

2 жыл бұрын

_No Matter What_ was the song ALW composed and Jim Steinman lyricised. It featured a verse that began every line with "If only ...", a phrase he was borrowing in relation to COVID, the lack of financial relief assistance, et cetera, that he believed might have kept _Cinderella_ running.

ALW my god get your priorities straight

A “costly mistake”. Wow.

I've lost respect for Andrew to be honest

Who are they all making kisses faces at up top?

@joshhopkinson329

2 жыл бұрын

The band!

Hopefully this comes to America. I think it will be more popular here.

The costly mistake was not the crew, the cast or any of the people involved. It was the timing, because covid destroyed income for a lot of businesses, including theaters.. That was it. It had nothing to do with any of these people.I woudn't feel personally attacked by this. It was a hard time for everybody.

Could someone please tell me why they already booed before the letter was read? I mean, the bits of music I heard of "Cinderella" sounds a bit mediocre and half-heartet, but is there another reason?

@atinytrashcan6755

2 жыл бұрын

When composers open a new musical, they are expected to attend that production's closing night, however far into the future that may be.

@Erizou90

2 жыл бұрын

@@atinytrashcan6755 I see! Thank you ^^

My very little remaining respect for ALW just plummeted with that letter…. Disgraceful….

poor fool he make me laugh ha ha ha ha ha

I wonder if all this will spill over on his other shows.. well.. show.. Will Phantom survive this debacle?

hands up who here just skipped past the letter lol

I haven’t seen the musical, but i hope there weren’t any kid/young actors in the cast. Imagine having your boss shit on you (via letter because he didn’t have the balls to show up) in front of a theater of people that you don’t know. Thats devastating for an adult. I can’t imagine it for a kid

@iwakeupandboomimarat

Жыл бұрын

idk the ages of all the actors but some of the intended new cast were gonna make their west end debut on cinderella (john whaite, daisy blanche treille (?), etc) so it just feels like a slap in the face

@samael9589

Жыл бұрын

@@iwakeupandboomimarat oh i even didn’t think about actors who were debuting, thats terrible.

@iwakeupandboomimarat

Жыл бұрын

@@samael9589 yeah i think some of them were saying that they had legit rejected other roles/jobs bc they expected to be in an alw production and then all at once they lost their jobs with basically no backup plan. its honestly horrible especially considering it was meant to be their west end debut and some of them were very young

@samael9589

Жыл бұрын

@@iwakeupandboomimarat god that’s terrible, i hope they get jobs soon

"Costly Mistake" - is not exactly the best choice of wording !

I hope this ruins him and his name. And everyone here was so professional despite knowing that they'll never ever work with that man ever again.

Bring it back next year, with the original cast so the rest of us poor mortals can see this wonderful play, written by the great ALW, writer of so many great West End productions including this one, and with Carrie whose voice and character are brilliant!

@kbye2321

2 жыл бұрын

Did you not watch the video and hear the utterly sanctimonious letter he wrote being read out loud? ALW may have created such great classics as Phantom and Cats but that doesn’t allow him to act like a utter knobhead especially to the cast of this very production. How in hell do you still have respect for this man, especially after the comments he said in relation to Cinderella and after the incident with Lupone?

@malcolmjohnston7873

2 жыл бұрын

@@kbye2321 Simple. He is a creative genius, and this is just one glitch in a very long and distinguished career. We all make mistakes, and at least he worked his butt off and was prepared to be arrested to get the West End back on track. Fortunately that did not happen. Covid however, which was not his fault nor responsibility did. I myself was due to attend a theatre last night, however got an e mail at 2pm yesterday afternoon as a cast member had tested positive for Covid so the show got cancelled. It happens, and I’m not blaming the producers / directors.

@SamWest96

Жыл бұрын

@@malcolmjohnston7873 have a look into ALW's long career of being a prized tit. TS Eliot and Cats, and Patti Lupone are good places to start

@malcolmjohnston7873

Жыл бұрын

@@SamWest96 I am fully aware of his career, having watched it since it started. As for Cinders, his reasoning was sound, although the delivery was not. Either way he is still a creative genius.

I actually couldn’t watch his grandiose display at the Jubilee bc of how two faced he is. He no longer deserves his premier place in the West End. Respect is earned not accumulated so you can be an arrogant prima doña and crush everyone later on. You are now a “has been”.

That letter is horrible. The cast deserved better.

BREAKING NEWS: The show is heading for Broadway. Imperial Theatre in 2023 and renamed BAD CINDERELLA.

A half ar5ed thanks to the cast and referring to it as a 'costly mistake'. Wow! ALW and his big bizarre face has really misread this.

I know what Andrew did was wrong but sometimes we don’t know the whole story

@atinytrashcan6755

2 жыл бұрын

True. We dont know the full story. That being said, imagine working daily on large difficult project, giving it your all, only for your boss to say your efforts were for naught, because the project was a "costly mistake." Sure, it's not unexpected for a lot of bosses to say that, but that fact doesn't make you feel any better, does it? Not to mention, it wasn't mentioned in the video, but the lack of communication regarding the show's closing caused a lot of cast members to lose their job secuirty. Performing arts is a rigorous industry and these people deserved respect. Whether or not it was his intention, ALW failed to give it to them and for that, he should be held accountable.

@kaylaheafey5888

2 жыл бұрын

100% agree with you

It was destined to be a flop from the day they announced it... it was so evident. why would you even bother signing on for it? Before people come for me, I've been in the industry long enough to know what I'm talking about. I've signed onto productions, realised they weren't going to be good, and and left the production to join more successful ones.

Imagine thinking he had control over a global pandemic. 🙄

Why are they booing at Andrew Lloyd Webber?

@misssupercookie2011

2 жыл бұрын

Basically; he didn't bother telling his cast and crew that the show was closing. He told them half an hour before the news hit social media, while they were gathered on the stage. Carrie didn't even hear it from him as she wasn't there that day and had to hear it from a castmate. What's worse is that the incoming cast had to find out they lost their upcoming jobs on Twitter. He also dedicated all his time afterwards talking about his plans for a Broadway run and barely mentioned the hard work of the West End cast. And apparently also yelled at them over the tannoy because of a bad review.

@zartig09

2 жыл бұрын

The show closed early because it was making enough money for him. And when the show closed, he informed part of the current cast right before the closure announcement was made public. The rest of the cast found out online and via friends, including Carrie who is the shows lead. The future cast only found out via social media, as their agents were informed on a bank holiday Sunday. And ALW has not apologised. Basically he caused a lot of very avoidable grief and is unapologetic.

@TsWade2

2 жыл бұрын

@@misssupercookie2011 I see!

@TsWade2

2 жыл бұрын

@@zartig09 I see again!

@Jlonotfromtheblock

2 жыл бұрын

@@misssupercookie2011 The bad review thing is even worse than it sounds because it was the first “American” newspaper (it was the New York Post) review, which heavily criticised the show and the writing itself but highly praised the actors. After this ALW decided to call and rebuke the whole cast about how awful they all are/how bad they were making him look (which they pumped through the loudspeakers of the whole theatre) from his holiday home in Mallorca and essentially screamed at them whilst the actors were on stage warming up/getting ready to perform the show, because the ego of ALW couldn’t possibly fathom that he’d written a sub par show so in his mind it was obviously the cast’s fault. Apparently what he said was so awful he caused some of the actors to cry/breakdown quite severely. The actual show that evening ended up starting about 30 minutes late as actors were still in a mess (I mean try having your boss scream at you about how awful you are at your job/about issues that categorically aren’t your fault and then having to go out and outperform your job (that’s normally done to an exceptionally high level anyway) in front of hundreds of staring, expectant audience almost immediately afterwards). There was also huge risk too as some of the actors were threatening to walk out of the theatre and not do that night’s show/end their contract there and then. When this didn’t happen, there were apparently even talks and a vote held about whether they should hold a full blown strike for the following Friday (which would typically be one of the fullest in terms of tickets sold so therefore more costly and more inconvenient/embarrassing for ALW). Obviously none of it went ahead otherwise the news of it would have been everywhere. But it shows the cast were already fed up of being treated like second class citizens by ALW, and then the stuff with the show cancellation announcement (where the lead wasn’t even in the building to be told the show was cancelled and had to find out via text from another member of the cast), he essentially turned most of the West End and some Broadway actors/crew against him or even more against him if they already had an issue with him, which famously several big name actors did/still do. This includes legends such a Patti LuPone who once sued him over his appalling treatment of her. She won the case and built a swimming pool in her garden with the money she won and called the pool, “The Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool”. Anyway, ALW’s rebuking of the cast was especially hideous due to the fact that a lot of this iteration of Cinderella was ultimately saved from being a total flop by the extraordinary talent he had in his cast, like his newest “leading lady” in Carrie and the phenomenal talent that is Ivano, nevermind all the talent in the supporting cast. And I think this “thank you” letter will be the final nail in the negative viewpoint coffin of ALW, and will vastly worsen attitudes towards him, and I don’t limit that to just people who work in the theatre industry. I also imagine it won’t be a stretch that he might struggle to get any big names for his future staging of shows, at least for the immediate future because, well, people talk. And I also imagine that at a minimum, this cast will try and avoid as many ALW/RUG projects as they can in the future because they have had such a negative experience with him on this which is sad as I can see a fair few of the Cinderella cast absolutely excelling in some of his older, more successful shows. Plus just on a very petty note about ALW, I was already miffed with him before all the Cinderella stuff due to the Cats movie (and not just because it was awful…) When ALW decided he wanted to write Cats the musical based on the book of poetry by T.S.Eliot, he approached Eliot’s widow to get permission/the rights to the book to make the show. Apparently (and ALW’s says this, own words on a documentary somewhere) T.S.Eliot and then his widow had been approached repeatedly by people like Disney wanting to transform it into a movie/TV show etc, and T.S.Eliot had always explicitly said no as he didn’t want it Disney-fied. However, Esme (the widow) finally allowed ALW to use the book because of how he described to her what he intended on doing in the show, how it would look/sound and that Disney would never be allowed to go anywhere near it and that the author’s wishes would be firmly upheld. Which of course we now know that Disney eventually did get involved in that god forsaken movie, and coincidentally work/preproduction began on it not too long after Eliot’s wife died… The whole thing just felt incredibly gross to me and drastically changed my opinion of him (especially when the movie was as awful as it was). If someone needed a sign to believe in karma, the fact the show got universally panned by critics, was so unpopular (even with the original musical lovers) and in general was simply an awful AWFUL movie could almost be seen as a direct result of (what at least appeared to be) his essentially waiting for an elderly woman to die so there was no one left to object to the movie being made. So ever since then he’s felt like a sleezeball to me, nevermind adding all his atrocious behaviour surrounding Cinderella and his general self serving attitude on top of it…

It was a costly mistake because how woke this show was, not because of the actors. ALW should blame the woke producer.