Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella is a show I’ve obviously heard of but never actually seen. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had a legendary partnership that resulted in multiple famous musicals including Oklahoma!, The King and I, South Pacific, and my personal favorite The Sound of Music. For me there’s no contest the first three have some good songs, but only The Sound of Music is solid song after song and Cinderella didn’t change that. Though lacking a breakout song, in general, they were all pleasing. Not having seen the original book for the show which was written by Hammerstein I can’t say for sure, but I suspect the new book by Douglas Carter Beane has a lot to do with how enjoyable and amusing this production was. With several strong performances and a lot of fun ones including from some favorites I found that I had a very enjoyable evening at the Theater. It falls short of great through no fault of the cast, there just are no great songs in the show. There is also a chaos to the design and direction of the show that didn’t do it any favors either.

The book takes liberties with the fairytale story we all know from childhood and Walt Disney. Here there isn’t just the one Ball, but also a second gathering in the form of a Banquet. There is a love interest for one of Cinderella’s sisters and some political intrigue in the form of the Lord Chancellor Sebastian. Both of these elements I believe are new to the Beane book and are welcome additions. One of the aspects I enjoyed most were the departures from the story I know so well. I also enjoyed an added depth between Cinderella and her stepsisters and stepmother. There is a song the four perform in the second Act, “When You’re Driving Through the Moonlight” where the characters seem to forget their antagonistic relationship and even ends with the stepmother kissing Cinderella on the head before she realizes what she’s done. There are other touches like that throughout particularly between the stepsister Gabrielle and Cinderella. This step away from making the three step family members just rotten added a subtle but potent aspect of emotional reality to the work, I actually teared up a little in those moments, and this is not a show that is trying to make you tear up at all.

This was directed by the new Artistic Director of Theater Latté Da Justin Lucero and I’m going to give him credit for mining those scenes for elements of humanity. I’m gonna dock him though for the overall design of this show which utilizes these curvy forms (which you can see in the photo above) which at first I thought were going to be used creatively such as in the first scene when one becomes the princes horse, but after that they just seem to be utilized as a distraction during costume changes perhaps? They are moved around occasionally to form something specific like Cinderella’s carriage, but then they get moved around twice as often to create… nothing specific that my eye could discern. I expected more from Scenic Designer Eli Sherlock and Lucero, I was hoping for a little stage magic like we got with Scotland, PA. The costumes by Mathew J. Lefebvre were individually splendid, but when taken as a whole they lacked a cohesiveness. We have standard fairytale attire, which looked great by the way, mixed with 90’s grunge, which also looked great, but they didn’t work together. I did enjoy the choreography by Kyle Weiler unreservedly.

Speaking of unreservedly appreciated elements, I found no fault at all with the cast. The leads Nambi Mwassa as Ella (Cinderella) and Theo Janke-Furman as Prince Topher were both great in their roles. What was also a tremendous advantage to this production were all the great performers in the supporting roles. Tod Petersen plays Sebastian, the self serving politician who has the wool pulled over the Prince’s’ eyes, it’s the kind of sarcastic and devious character that a gifted actor like Petersen can have a lot of fun with. Sally Wingert as the Stepmother is right in her sweet spot, so gifted at delivering withering ridicule, she’s a blast. Evan Tyler Wilson as Lord Pinkleton had a hilarious ad lib at the show I attended, and probably had the best singing voice in the cast. Carnetha Anthony plays Marie, the crazy woman who lives in the forest and turns out to be the Fairy Godmother, is also excellent and really shines in her duet with Mwassa on the song “Impossible/It’s Possible“. Finally a quick mention of Isa Condo-Olvera and Hope Nordquist as the Stepsisters Gabrielle and Charlotte who made these stock characters funny and warmer than I’ve ever seen them played.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella runs through January 5th at Theater Latté Da. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.latteda.org/cinderella

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