THIS "CINDERELLA" IS FLUFFY AND FEMINIST

By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

 

Midnight is still the magic-enforced curfew in "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella."

Here in the heart of the Christmas season, if you know someone suffering from cynicism and severe unsentimentality, take them to see “Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella,” playing through Sunday in Centennial Hall.

Trust me, they will thank you.

This production is the fluffiest, most poofed out and entertaining version of the Cinderella story you are likely to see anytime soon.

Back in the 1960s, modern feminists gathering steam to change the world hated Cinderella. All that polite and sugar sweet girl could do was sit around waiting for her Prince to come.

Mostly those combative 1960s teens and 20-somethings were thinking of the evergreen Walt Disney version, the one that trained the same little girls who would become the mothers of these young feminists.

While the original “Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella” was created in 1957 as a network television special featuring Julie Andrews, it seems that Cinderella's social conscience did keep evolving over the ensuing decades.

Then in 2013 Douglas Carter Beane (unfortunately, a man) wrote a new book for the show, staking out Cinderella's fresh can-do personality as a take-charge young women determined to make her own dreams come true.

Yes, this Prince still does all the heavy lifting to the same R&H songs with their Hollywood lush arrangements, but in the dialogue this Cinderella is a game girl who won't stop believing.

The producers have also inserted an additional R&H song, the defiant “Now is the Time” that was originally cut from the racially (but more subtly) riven “South Pacific.”

When it comes to empowerment, today's Cindy isn't waiting for anybody.

But these producers also love and respect the timeless charm of a lovely young sunny female who wins the Prince's devotion simply because she is lovely and sunny.

In other words, what Broadway in Tucson's “Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella” is really about is the clothes. Costume designer William Ivey Long won a Tony for his work and deservedly so, created in vibrant colors reminiscent of the NBC network's fabled peacock.

Time after time a dozen or more fantasy gowns fill the stage with fairy tale beauty swirling in Technicolor joyfulness. In this show Cinderella is going to not one ball, but two. Her slipper isn't lost until the second gala, after true love blossoms from the soulful connection between she and the Prince.

As for the casting, Tatyana Lubov (Cinderella) and Louis Griffin (the Prince) seem like nice enough suburban kids, but three others on stage gave performances definitely worthy of further notice.

Johanna Johnson steals her every scene, packing the role as misbehaving stepsister Charlotte full of feisty fun. Leslie Jackson has a more traditional Broadway spirit, however she is endowed with an abundance of the “It” factor.

Also blessed with a commanding stage presence, and given the most wow-ful costume, is Vincent B. Davis as the town crier. If ever a performer deserved an 11 o'clock number, it is this guy.

"Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella” runs through Dec. 10 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6-7, 8 p.m. Dec. 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Dec. 9, 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 10 in Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. at the University of Arizona.

Tickets are $29-$100. For details and reservations, broadwayintucson.com, 800-745-3000 or visit the Centennial Hall box office. Running time is 2 ½ hours, including intermission.