Theater Review: ‘Cinderella’ makes for ‘A Lovely Night’ out
By Quinn Roseboom
This past Tuesday I had the pleasure of seeing “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Preforming Arts in Downtown Orlando. I’ve never read the original storybook of Cinderella, but I have seen both Disney’s live action and original animated versions, “Into the Woods” and other shows with Cinderella as a character throughout my life.
Like most people, I know the basic story: Ella (Kaitlyn Davidson) is poor and has a cruel stepmother (Blair Ross) and two stepsisters (Kimberly Fauré and Aimee Garcia). The Prince (Andy Huntington Jones) holds a ball to find a wife; Ella’s family forbids her to go; her fairy godmother (Liz McCartney) appears and sends her to the ball; Ella dances with the prince; Ella loses her glass slipper upon leaving, the Prince tries the slipper on every girl in the kingdom; he finds Ella; they get married; Happily ever after.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version is not much different, with the exception of the new music, a few new characters, some slightly different relationships, and some other surprises like an entirely new (at least to me) plot line in which Ella drops her slipper when leaving the ball (SPOILERS AHEAD – just in this paragraph) then turns around, picks it up and gets away from the prince with both the slippers. This leads to a whole new situation that I won’t spoil You’ll just have to see for yourself how it pans out.
The music’s still stuck in my head. I don’t exactly remember all the lyrics, but the tunes are gonna be hard to rid myself of. I’ll definitely be downloading some of the songs into my library.
Overall, I loved the production. All of the changes from the story I knew kept me on the edge of my seat. The costumes were beautiful and the acting was great. It’s a fun night out the whole family will enjoy.
The show runs at Dr. Phillips Center through Nov. 15. You can buy tickets at drphillipscenter.org. Visit the official website at cinderellaonbroadway.com.
Here’s a preview:
