They don't make glass slippers, it's no great surprise.
If they made glass slippers, they don't have my size.
Happy ever after, always turns out wrong
No fairy godmother pops up to help things along.

The idea for Soho Cinders began a while ago when Anthony had an idea of updating a very basic version of Cinderella into something different. Originally he wanted to call it Launderella and set it in a launderette, and Cinders was as usual a girl.

That idea stuck around in the ether for five or six years and then the summer just after the new millennium, Stiles and Drewe sat in Regents Park with a huge piece of paper and started beating out how they could adapt this into a much more contemporary theme and twist the story. And write about some things that were significant and important to them.

The show was to have a vaguely satirical and political slant to it as well. Everything else that they have done has either been in fairy land, or has been a period piece. They wanted to do something that is NOW. Partly to challenge themselves, and partly because they thought this was what young actors and actresses were interested in these days. There is a gay love story element to the story, as well as it being a poke at celebrity status and politics nowadays. It focuses on what really matters, is it the person and their beliefs or is it their private life?

The show was sort of finished when they became slightly hijacked by Mary Poppins. Now that Mary Poppins has played both Britain and Broadway Stiles and Drewe have had the chance to go back and revisit it. Soho Cinders has had a few workshops and some of the songs were exclusively premiered on Sunday 6th July 2008 as part of the gala evening "A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe" celebrating 25 years of songwriting by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Starring Gareth Gates, Leanne Jones, Oliver Tompsett, Joanna Riding, Claire Moore, Rebecca Thornhill, Daniel Boys, Alison Jiear, Richard Dempsey and James Gillan.

Soho Cinders is a fable for the noughties if you like. Stiles and Drewe's many inspirations from musicals are shows like Guys and Dolls, which achieve a world which never really existed but you kind of feel might have done. They are a heightened version of a past time.

What they are trying to do with Soho CInders is do a version of that for London NOW. Which is exciting. They wanted to write a bit about where they live, things they know about, places they visit, and poke a bit of fun at their current world.

So Soho Cinders is great fun but at the heart of it there is a love story and a few serious issues. But there is a lot of sillyness along the way too!

The equivalent of the ball is when this prospective parliamentarian throws a MEET YOUR MAYOR evening at his house, where all the local business are invited to come and talk about their problems. Robbie goes in one of those buggy rickshaws, which is the equivalent of the carriage, up to the house.

It is very loosely based on Cinderella, and in fact the last song in the show is called THEY DON’T MAKE GLASS SLIPPERS because we want to pull the blanket at the last minute and not necessarily go for a happy ending.