“Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella”

One of the beautiful parts of their Children’s Theater program is that they do a condensed version of the musical. One hour is perfect to hold the attention of the youngsters in the audience ( and a few of the grandparents as well). I always try to bring a youngster with me to these shows in order to give you a truer picture of what a young person sees and feels about seeing “live theater”. Anna’s words will follow!

I am pretty sure that all of you know the story of Cinderella, whose father passes away after he remarries a woman with two daughters of her own. Cinderella is portrayed wonderfully  by Jaeda LaVonne. Her mean and terrible step-mother is played to perfection by Heidi Kettenring and the two step-sisters, Portia (Tiffany Taylor) and Joy ( Annie Yokom). These two ladies were delicious in their meanness and pettiness with their step-sister.

Being a shorter version of the story on an in-the-round stage, director Laura Rock smoothly worked out ways to show the magic of the Fairy Godmother ( deftly handled by Lillian  Castillo) and choreographer Katie Johannigan makes all the dance of the small stage “possible”! Since the stage is smaller, and the cast is smaller, there are far less feet to fit the glass slipper on, but I am pretty sure most of the audience members paid no attention to the number of feet that were trying on the special shoe.

The story is the same ( again, but the condensed version). The Prince ( Trey DeLuna) is coming of age and it is time for him to wed. His parents, the King ( a wonderful interpretation by Loenzo Rush Junior) and  Queen (Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel) have planned a ball where every woman in the kingdom is invited, so that he will have his choice. Of course, Cinderella is NOT allowed to go, but with the aid of her Fairy Godmother and her magic she does and the Prince falls in love with her. After all other women in the kingdom have tried and failed, Cinderella triesthe shoe on  and you guessed it, “Impossible Things Happen Every Day” and they live happily ever after.

This is a slick production using a small cast. Two members of the ensemble end up playing a number of roles including a baker ( a marvelous comedy touch by Garrett Lutz) and Herald by Ron King.  Rachel Boylan’s costumes are perfect including the dress worn by Cinderella that with a turn or two becomes a ball gown. Magical! One of the highlights of the children’s productions is the number of children who come in costume, following the theme of the show and the other is the Q & A when the curtain call is over. Many leave the theater at this point, but I truly find it fascinating to hear the questions from the children. They want to know and yearn to learn! Thank you Marriott for bringing young people to the theater so they can grow into our future audiences.