Monday, March 11, 2013

Cinderella on Broadway (finally) and my other musical obsession (sorry Audra)

Cinderella
Broadway Theatre
Thursday, March 7, 7pm

I have just two words for you – Victoria Clark.  She could add class to a mud wrestling tournament at the Alabama State Fair.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. 

With all the talk about a glossy new book and a modernized, empowered Cinderella, Trish and I took our seats in the nosebleed section (thanks, TDF) expecting a hot mess.  Instead, we were happily surprised to find the charming core of R+H’s show still intact. 

For the show’s first Broadway mounting (it was originally written and produced as a TV special), the R+H estate decided to gussy up the original by tossing out the existing book and raiding their own catalogue to fill out the score. 

Okay, some of the added left-leaning rhetoric is a bit heavy-handed.  A new character, political rabble-rouser Jean-Michel, seems to have wandered onstage from a touring production of Les Mis.  Regardless, I was still charmed by the production. 

You’d think hiring the campy Douglas Carter Beane (Little Dog Laughed, Xanadu and the screenplay of To Wong Foo…) to write the new book would all but guarantee that at least one of the stepsisters be played by a drag queen snapping, “You best clean out that fire place, gurl.”  Thankfully, he’s turned downt the camp factor several notches in favor of a healthy smattering of hilarious, if anachronistic, one-liners.

Granted, Beane’s sometimes self-referential, snarky writing style isn’t exactly a perfect fit for the earnest simplicity of Hammerstein’s lyrics.  But I’m sure the only thing the producers had in mind was how to keep a new generation of audience member reared on South Park and The Simpsons, to sit still for two hours.  A prime example of this degradation of audience etiquette came during the first act finale when the woman sitting directly behind us answered her cell phone. 

“I’m at a show.  No, I’m actually in the theatre watching a Broadway show right now.   Sorry, I can’t talk because it’s distracting to the people around me.”

I shit you not.  Moving on…

The familiar plot remains essentially the same though the King and Queen have been axed in favor of an evil counselor for the prince, one stepsister is now sympathetic to Cinderella's plight and there is now a romantic sub-plot between the "good" stepsister and Jean-Michel.

As for the physical production, it's all about the costumes.  The onstage transformations are off the hook.  Torn rags somehow instantaneously morph into voluminous gowns.  The moment Prince Topher sets eyes on Ella in her first white gown (yes, Beane’s gone for a hipper shortening of both the lead characters’ names), I was practically verklempt - though not really a surprise considering I cry at the opening of a Walmart.

When the Fairy God Mother presents Ella with a pair of glittering Italian glass slippers, some crazy queen in the balcony actually gasped out loud, causing a wave of tittering across the theatre.  And no, that queen was not me.

Just hand William Ivey Long the Tony now for his costume designs.

Laura Osnes’ Cinderella is sincere, charming and refreshingly irony-free and she sings the score beautifully.  Santino Fontana (Prince Topher) may not have traditional leading man looks (though from our rear balcony seats he looked just fine), but he has a boyish, goofy charm and sense of humor that won me over.  And that voice.  Dreamy.

I already mentioned Victoria Clark, but I need to gush again because her voice is just perfection.

My ultimate fantasy?  Victoria Clark, Audra McDonald and Carolee Carmello singing “I Will Never Leave You” from Side Show as a trio.  I dare you to come up with a combination that tops that on the gay-meter.

No comments:

"I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing thana hundred people's ninth favorite thing."

Jeff Bowen, Lyrics "[Title of Show]"