Darlings, Not All The "Cinderellas" In The Audience, Yesterday, Were Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   What a Palm Sunday, lambs!  From the Passion, to the Prince!!!!!!!!!

                                    There was more swooning at yesterday's performance of "Rodgers And Hammerstein's Cinderella" than I have seen in recent memory. The minute the Overture struck up
the song "Ten Minutes Ago," I was not the only one to swoon. And when Lauren Osncs (SO perfect as Cinderella) and Santino Fontana, as the Prince, render this bauble vocally, the swooning and sighing during the number outdid Southerners at a Christan revivalist meeting!!!!!!!!!  And with good reason!  This song is so simple, so lovely, and so musically compelling, who wouldn't swoon????????  Those who didn't are either deaf, or have no soul. Or maybe they just cannot tell the difference between REAL music, as opposed to "Spring Awakening" crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      The sets and costumes were also to die for!  When the curtain went up on the Ball Scene, it elicited gasps, like the Ascot scene in "My Fair Lady."  And, with the dancers a swirl of colors, beneath a center stage clock ticking ever closer to midnight, this show has more visual definition than anything I have seen staged, since the recent revival of "Follies." And that was almost two years ago.

                                        And, like I said, while there were plenty of mothers and daughters in the audience, for whom I can see this directed, there were plenty of Theater Queens, kings, and an occasional one-eyed jack!!!!!!!!!  Who swooned as much as the females in the audience; you better believe it, honey!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Hey, it is "Cinderella!!!!!!!!!!" What's not to like?????????????????

                                         Which is now where I am forced to introduce the name Douglas Carter Beane!
This glib and talented playwright is fine with his own material, but when asked to work on others', does he sell out big time!  Talk about kissing theatrical ass!!!!!!!!!!  If he were told to give "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf" a happy ending, as long as he got paid, he would do it!!!!!!!!!!!!   Even if Albee objected!!!!!!!! Now, those are two egos I would like to see clash--Albee is at least a certified genius, and has the credentials to prove it. Mr. Beane's credentials, impressive they may be, nevertheless demonstrate  that he is nothing more than a successful workingman's writer.  No small accomplishment, that, and I credit him for it, but he is no genius, like Albee. Though I get the impression he thinks he is.

                                            His changes don't hurt the show.  I even like empowering Cinderella more; she may be stuck "In Her Own Little Corner," but she is no Fantine, honey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                              However--

                                               Eliminating the King and Queen, replacing them with a regent for the Prince, who is a counterpoint to the Stepmother for Cinderella, just does not work, no matter how well Peter Bartlett (one of our best working actors!!!!!!!!) plays the role, or how breathtaking his costumes are!  Harriet Harris plays the Stepmother for all it is worth; like Laura and Santino, she nails her character.  But I have a problem with the arch villains not getting their comeuppance at the end!  This is a fairy tale, for God's sake!!!!!!!!  Even Miss Hannigan gets dragged off, screaming, at the end of "Annie!"   This forgiveness thing "Cinderella" does I get why she does it, but, let me tell you, darlings, the way this bitch treated her, if I had been Cinderella I would have a lot of trouble forgiving Madame!!!!!!!!  But that's just ME, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                  How about what has been done to the Stepsisters??????? They have been stripped of their authenticity, by having one of them have a social conscience, fall in love with a revolutionary (who does she think she is???? Julie Christie as Lara in "Doctor Zhivago?") which takes away from one of the score's best songs--the "Stepsisters' Lament" is now sung by only one sibling, backed up by Ladies of the Court. It does not work this way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And the compassionate  sister ends up being treated as badly by her OWN MOTHER as Cinderella!!!!!!!!!!!!   What is going on here?????????????

                                                     And yet this bitch gets no comeuppance!  Just "Ha! Ha! I'm sorry, and the wedding is beautiful!"  Well, it is; opulently so, in fact! But that Stepmother should never have been invited!
Nor her other, daughter, Charlotte!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                       But, like I said, these are quibbles!  Once the lights go down and this show begins to work the magic it still has, you will "never come down to Earth again!"

                                                        Oh, my God!  How about Victoria Clark, as the Fairy Godmother, with the most gorgeous looking gown, who sings like a dream and flies through the air?????????  If any cast member should be cited for doing the "Impossible," it is she!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                           Yes, my dears, "the world is full of zanies and fools/Who don't believe in sensible rules/Who don't believe what sensible people say!"

                                                             Which is why I say--Thank God for US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!