Lloyd Webber's Cinderella gala to raise money to empower female refugees around the world

19 November 2021, 12:04

A special gala performance is being held for Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit new musical Cinderella, in order to raise money to empower women and girls who have been hit by the refugee crisis all over the world.

The gala on Monday, November 22, will raise money for Malala Yousafzai's charity, Malala Fund.

The charity is dedicated to supporting refugees who have lost everything to retain access to the opportunities they need to build a better future.

Lord Lloyd Webber told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that he chose to work with Malala after being touched by the refugee crisis facing hundreds of women and girls currently.

"I've known Malala a little while now, since before she went to Oxford, and she is one of the most impressive women you will ever meet, and a wonderful father and mother too," he told Nick.

"She is extraordinary and of course her real mission is to help refugees. Whether we like it or not the refugee issue and climate change, as climate change of course is very interlinked with the refugee issue, it's not going to go away.

"I think everyone has to remember it could have been you or I."

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Andrew Lloyd Webber explains his version of Cinderella

The Malala Fund is working for a world where every girl can learn and lead through access to a free, safe and quality education.

It comes amid the worsening global refugee crisis, which has seen more than 23,000 people arrive in the UK this year after crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The crisis has interrupted the education of millions of young women, with more than 130 million girls out of school today.

Speaking of his version of Cinderella, Lord Lloyd Webber said: "She is a rebel in a town of complete conformists, where everybody is sort of in the most beautiful town ever. I mean, think Disney really on stilts.

"Everybody has to be beautiful and everybody has to dress in the latest thing and be a Kardashian, and Cinderella in our story is not like that and therefore is the town's outcast.

"She gets her way in the end, but what I can guarantee is there's not a pumpkin in sight."

Read more: Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber: Migrant crisis on 'same level as climate change'

Lord Lloyd Webber explains his raising money for the Malala fund

The gala on Monday evening been donated by composer Lord Lloyd Webber and every penny raised will be donated directly to Malala Fund.

The Cinderella gala event will also feature the work of a contemporary Afghan artist, Shamsia Hassani, and the stories of female Afghan musicians.

Malala Yousafzai has been "fighting for a world where every girl can learn and lead" since she was just 10 years old.

She said in the last two years girls in many countries have faced "enormous setbacks" to their education, citing the Covid panic, economic pressures, conflict and displacement.

"I am grateful to my friend Andrew for all his support, and I want to thank the cast and crew of Cinderella for arranging this special performance to support Malala Fund," she said.

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Speaking ahead of the gala performance, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber said: “I am an enormous admirer of Malala. She is an extraordinary person and you can imagine my delight when I discovered that she loved musical theatre.

"Malala and her fund work to empower women and girls to be the best version of themselves and the people they truly want to be. Recent events in Afghanistan, and the worsening of the global refugee crisis, which will be inevitably exacerbated by climate change in the years to come, have brought into sharp focus the importance of Malala’s work.

“We wanted to do this gala performance of Cinderella because our heroine is a strong-willed and mischievous young woman whose lesson is: don’t change to please others. I want to thank everyone who supports this gala and enables us to do more to help women and girls to achieve their dreams.”

Tickets for the gala performance of Cinderella are on sale here.