Interview: Ted Chapin Discusses CINDERELLA, SOUND OF MUSIC Tours, Future R&H Broadway Shows

For generations, RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA existed only as a beloved television movie. First with a live broadcast in 1957 starring Julie Andrews; then in 1965 with Lesley Ann Warren, a version which was regularly re-broadcast into the 90s (which I grew up watching); and finally in 1997 with Brandy in the title role and Whitney Houston as her Fairy Godmother. However, in 2013, over 55 years after its first broadcast, led by Broadway's favorite princess Laura Osnes and crowned prince Santino Fontana, R&H 's CINDERELLA took its first Broadway bow. The show earned nine Tony nominations, running for nearly two years. Now, CINDERELLA's First National Tour sets up shop in its own little corner at Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, with performances beginning on Tuesday night.

Despite decades of broadcasts and legions of fans, it wasn't until about eight years ago that anyone got serious about bringing the show to the New York stage. At that point, Second Stage co-founder, and current Roundabout executive, Robyn Goodman and Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization President Ted Chapin were casually discussing potential collaborations when Chapin had a brilliant idea.

"I said, 'No one's ever figured out how to do CINDERELLA that would be worthy for Broadway,'" Chapin recalls. "We had licensed a couple of versions of it that have proven to be popular in the stock and amateur markets, but no one's ever really talked about doing it on Broadway."

The two then put their heads together and decided that to do it properly for today's Broadway audiences, it would be important to have Cinderella more in charge of her own fate than she typically is in the most popular versions of the fairytale. The pair also wanted to make the character of The Prince more fully realized, and also to give the story a modern spin without changing what makes all of the original incarnations so enduring.

"People who know any of the three versions of CINDERELLA that were on television, they recognize (in the stage musical) that which has been around since 1957," Chapin said, "but there's different stuff that makes it feel more like a stage piece."

To incorporate the substantive changes to the story, while also adapting it from a TV product to a stage property, the team brought in five-time Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane to completely overhaul the libretto.

"The first meeting I had with Douglas, he told me that his partner, I believe, is a French scholar," Chapin said. "He got a literal translation of the (Charles) Perrault story, upon which all modern versions of Cinderella are based in some form or other. He said there are some interesting discoveries that he found there."

Beane learned that Perrault had laced his 1697 version of the tale with layers of social commentary, from the why the slipper was made of glass to why the royal court was responsible for the step-sisters being so mean. This inspired the group to give the show a more progressive adaptation. Cinderella is no longer a damsel in distress, the Prince is not simply a one-dimensional charming hero, and the Fairy Godmother's greatest gift is helping Cinderella spread goodness throughout the kingdom.

The new perspective on the script necessitated that the team incorporate other songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein archives into the already wonderfully warm CINDERELLA score.

"We've done this a fair amount on my watch, seeing what might be lurking in the archive, or cut material," Chapin said, "and I have to say, when Douglas came in to talk about this stuff, he was as smart as anybody was. Our Director of Music, Bruce Pomahac, was wonderful with Douglas; for example, Douglas was looking for something to introduce the prince at the beginning, and Bruce played a song that was mostly cut out of ME AND JULIET."

While Beane liked the lyrics of "Me, Who Am I?," the original arrangement didn't work, so Pomahac immediately played it as a march, and CINDERELLA had found its new opening number.

Since Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were innovators in integrating songs into their storytelling, it can often be difficult to interpolate trunk songs into new projects, especially if R&H never finished the song in the first place.

"When Rodgers and Hammerstein cut songs, they cut songs for a reason," Chapin explained. "Some of them are complete songs, like 'Loneliness of Evening,' which was cut from SOUTH PACIFIC, and was then put into the (CINDERELLA) you grew up with. That's a very good song on its own, so putting songs like that in is a relatively easy thing.

"Where it gets a little problematic is when there is material that probably wasn't fully realized originally; things like that Prince song, "Me, Who Am I?" It was never really expanded, it's just once through, and it seemed as if when they were doing ME AND JULIET, they kind of went on a different direction, and never went back to finish up that thought. That's where the judgement is a little different, and we need to be as smart as we possibly can be, to make the songs at least feel as if they belong with the rest of the songs."

Chapin believes that the work the entire team did on incorporating a new book and adding to the existing score of CINDERELLA has worked out extremely well, as evidenced by the wonderful response to the show in New York and on the road. Adapting the story for the stage also allowed the show's designers to create a unique, yet still magical, experience within the framework of the beloved story and songs.

"It's really as simple as it's 'theatricalization' of what they know and love, but with a modern twist to it," Chapin said. "When they started to move this towards the actual production, part of what the designers wanted to do was to show whatever magic they were going to show in front of the audience. They did not want people running off stage in a puff of smoke, and running back on stage having had a (costume) change that we didn't notice."

Costume designer William Ivey Long won the Tony for his work on CINDERELLA, marking a huge improvement from the 1957 TV original.

"When Cinderella is transformed on the original television, the camera starts at her feet and goes up very, very slowly and then gets to her crown," Chapin said. "Julie Andrews had mentioned to me that part of the reason they did it that way is because, literally, they were still working on her hair when they started, when the camera was at her feet."

To give Andrews more time to change, the designers simply held a sparkler in front of the camera as a distraction. Needless to say, the stage magic in this version is much more impressive. However, magic aside, Chapin believes that what is still the most compelling part of CINDERELLA is what the writers instilled into the original.

"What Rodgers and Hammerstein were able to bring to the musical theatre, the emotion, the plotting so that when characters are in trouble, you understand how they can get out of trouble, and we root for them, all that basic stuff, has withstood all of these different versions of CINDERELLA."

In addition to RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA, the 2015-2016 Orlando Broadway Series will see another R&H show come through the Dr. Phillips Center when the brand new THE SOUND OF MUSIC tour comes to town in early January.

Chapin said that three-time Tony-winning director Jack O'Brien has put a specific focus on the original stage play's script to bring out new depth and nuance to the characters that most people only know from the Julie Andrews film.

"I think everyone was terrified of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, because everyone assumed that THE SOUND OF MUSIC was only that movie, which is wonderful, but it was a Broadway show before it was a movie," Chapin said. "A lot of directors have resisted looking back at what the Broadway show was, which is exactly what Jack O'Brien has done."

Chapin is very proud of the fact that critics and audiences across the country have been introduced to the stage version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, with which many were unfamiliar.

"One of the reviews in Los Angeles, and I love this, because it kind of encapsulates what (O'Brien) did, she sings, 'I come to the hills when my heart is lonely,' and the reviewer said, 'The actress looked troubled, and for the first time, I understood what the lyric was saying.'

"So, he really has examined the text. It's not an abstract production, or anything like that, it looks familiar in terms of the Von Trapp house and the mountains and all that stuff, but you don't see her twirling on the mountain, that's Julie Andrews in the movie," Chapin said. "So, Jack's devised a place where she can be on the top of that mountain that make sense. Jack has examined every one of those characters, what's going on, what do these words tell us about what's happening? People who love the movie only have discoveries to be found in this production, and so far, it's gone very well, and I think audiences down there will have a really good time."

The SOUND OF MUSIC tour is currently scheduled to run through August 2016, and while Chapin says there are no plans for a New York run, if there is an interest, a Broadway bow could happen.

"We did not plan New York at all in the tour, as well we shouldn't," he said. "It's a very good tour, but you know, theatre has a way of finding things that are good and getting them into places. While I wouldn't say it's part of the plan, it's not out of the realm of possibility."

In June, the Lincoln Center revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's beloved musical THE KING AND I won the Tony for Best Revival, and with so many iconic works in the R&H library, Chapin knows that it is only a matter of time before the next show gets underway. After a star-studded Lyric Opera of Chicago production of CAROUSEL, Chapin thinks a new revival of the show could be on the horizon. While the logistics of transferring the Lyric Opera's version to New York likely make that impossible, the Chicago production did inspire some exciting discussions.

"This is in fact the second Broadway production of THE KING AND I that's happened on my watch," Chapin said, "so the next one that's kind of being thought about out there is CAROUSEL. There's nothing firm about it, but there's been some interesting notions, some interesting conversations. So I have a feeling that after THE SOUND OF MUSIC, probably the next one will be CAROUSEL."

The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization not only manages the R&H catalogue, but also oversees the works of Irving Berlin as well. Over the past decade, many of the legendary composer's works have been adapted to the stage, but working around copyright issues to original films can prove to be problematic.

"Wearing our Irving Berlin hat, we seem to be seeing a lot of Irving Berlin shows in development," Chapin said. "That's another whole area that's fun, but creating things like WHITE CHRISTMAS presents its own set of problems and challenges, but it's also some kind of fun."

When asked specifically about rumors of a Broadway production of IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS, which has played at the Goodspeed Opera House in New Jersey and St. Louis' Muny in the past year, Chapin said, while laughing, "That's part of my job. We're working on it."

Check out highlights from the CINDERELLA tour:

To purchase tickets to RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA, playing in Orlando from November 10th-15th, visit the Dr. Phillips Center website.

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Banner Photo Credits:
1) Paige Faure & Andy Jones: Carol Rosegg
2) Ted Chapin: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging
3) Kerstin Anderson: Matthew Murphy