CINDERELLA Aiming For '12 - '13 Broadway Run — Page 3

Oh no! Oh no! Please say it isn't so! ....The theatre gods just cannot be this cruel, can they?..... Douglas Carter Beane!.... Cinderella! ..... Rodgers and Hammerstein's beautiful score, the sweet and lovely original book.....Impossible! .... Douglas Carter Beane! Author of Mr. & Mrs. Fitch and Lysistrata Jones. .... Cinderella!.... What did that poor little fairy tale ever do to anyone to deserve this?

Alas, poor Yorick, ... nothing left to do, I guess, but go to to one's own little corner and weep.

The problem with "updating" the book is the music will play against it. A strong, independent self-sufficient CInderella, singing "In My Own Little Corner"? Major disconnect.

From "In My Own Little Corner":

"I'm a young Norwegian princess or a milkmaid
I'm the greatest prima donna in Milan
I'm an heiress who has always had her silk made
By her own flock of silkworms in Japan...

I'm a slave from Calcutta I'm a queen in Peru.
I'm a mermaid dancing upon the sea
I'm a huntress on an African safari.. it's a dangerous type of sport and yet it's fun
In the night I sally forth to seek my quarry
And I find I forgot to bring my gun...."

Easily tweaked, if they let anybody touch the lyrics, but Hammerstein's Cinderella isn't afraid to dream of being heroic, risk-taking, etc.

And besides, this song is merely where she starts. Maybe they can borrow "It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish" from SEESAW.

Both the Enchanted Edition (the version with the extra songs from the Brandy TV movie) and the traditional version cannot be licensed. The songs added in for the Enchanted Edition flesh out the stepsisters a bit, which is a nice touch, but the book is largely the same. I think they probably are going to write in other songs to pad the show and change its tone. I doubt they'll alter lyrics, but interposing other songs from stronger female characters at key points in the story could allow for a more contemporary take on Cinderella.

I can see it now... instead of Cinderella being defined as demure, submissive, proper and sweet, singing "In My Own Little Corner" so that we can see how simple and quaint her fantasy life is...

Meet Cinderella. She's poor, but that's okay. Her family doesn't like her- that's okay too. She makes interesting outfits out of curtains and scraps and has a wild, quirky inner life.

Meet Prince Charming. He's proper. He's poised. He's... not much fun, and he's looking for a wife, not a princess. But sometimes, to find your manic pixie dream girl... first you need a manic pixie.

This holiday season... "I Love Cinderella." Starring Zooey Deschanel! Featuring songs/a song by Rodgers and Hammerstein!

/sarcasm

NoHSMisNotAMusical, where did you hear Nathan was going to be in it? If he is, it must be as The King. Meaning they'd need another comedian opposite him as the Queen, like Andrea Martin.

There was a big production in L.A. in the '90s that was far more entertaining than I thought it would be. The "celebrity casting" was for the Fairy Godmother and the King and Queen. Everbody else was non-marquee theatre folk.

I saw Rose Marie (of the Dick Van Dyke Show) as the Fairy Godmother and Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows as the King and Queen.

It was a delightful show, even if it was a bit light. I really enjoyed the theatricality of the transformations, especially the pumpkin into a carriage. The audience ate the whole thing up.

If I were casting it today, I'd try for "old school" celebs in those same roles. Someone like Joanne Worley as the Fairy Godmother or maybe coax Debbie Reynolds into doing it. Or Jane Powell. Or Jane Withers! For the King and Queen I'd try to get an older celebrity couple (if there are any left). Or a retro "TV couple." Judith Light and Tony Danza. Or Cindy Williams and Eddie Mekka. Something like that. It could do well as a limited run.

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Updated On: 12/9/11 at 06:54 PM

Gav, I know limited runs can be financially successful and they happen all the time. I would guess a large amount of money could be saved on advertising. You only have to worry about filling a finite number of seats and advertising just enough to fill them. Certain shows, celebrities, composers, have built-in audiences, making the ad job a little easier. You don't have to buy TV and radio time and print space on an ongoing basis to build an advance at the box office, etc.

That's my guess, and I'm sure others can add reasons why limited runs can work (and do).

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That makes sense, best12. I suppose limited runs also focus whatever the interested audience is into the finite amount of time. So my original example was flawed: if X thousand people wanted to see both shows, all of them would get to the limited run in six months, but maybe only half of them would get to the open run in the same period.

Still speculating: I wonder if contracts for stars are affected as well. Maybe Scarlett Johansson works for a little less if she knows she can begin accepting film roles in three months rather than a year.

"Beauty Wicked Lover--why do you prefer a Cinderella simply because it's not so dark? I mean I get that there are maybe more different versions (from so many cultures) of this fairy tale, maybe more than any other--and it can work dark or not, but that just seems weird reasoning to me."

I do think Walt's version of the story had some very good pluses in it. The music is obviously one the best things about it. The voice acting was also terrific in it, especially Ilene Woods, Verna Felton, Elenor Audley, Rhoda Williams, and Lucille Bliss.

Still, there were a couple of things I didn't enjoy. I really did think the dress ripping scene was too harsh to watch. I thought the step family was a LITTLE TOO abusive. I also didn't like how Walt made dark looking palace guards chase after her at midnight. The music during that scene was also kind of scary to me when I was younger. Another one of its the problems, and this also occured in 'Snow White', was that back then drawing strapping looking princes was not easy. So Snow White and Cinderella's princes didn't have any character. Prince Phillip from 'Sleeping Beauty' at least had some character.

When I watched the 1965 R&H version I really liked how Stuart Damon gave the Prince some depth and I was rooting for him to find his true love. I also thought Jon Cypher and Paolo Montablan did a very good job in their versions as well. I also liked how the step family in all three versions were not as abusive as the one in the cartoon. In the first two versions, they accepted the fact Prince marries Cinderella and attend the wedding like in the original fairy tale.

Updated On: 8/30/12 at 03:52 PM

Remember how I said that Ali Mauzey should reprise the role of Cinderella after palying it in Nashville? Well, things might be in her favor because Mark Brokaw, who directed, 'Cry Baby', which Mauzey starred in, has signed on to direct the show.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Mark-Brokaw-to-Helm-Broadways-Cinderella-in-2012-2013-20120112

Laura Osnes will be playing the title character in the reading. She'll be wonderful if she were to continue to Broadway.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Laura-Osnes-Leads-Broadway-Bound-CINDERELLA-Reading-this-Month-20120113

Trunk songs?

So, will the Fairy Godmother tell Cinderella to "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" or "You'll Never Walk Alone"?