FIRST LOOK: A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS at PASADENA PLAYHOUSE

It looks like Santa will be giving one lucky girl her glass slipper this holiday season! The Pasadena Playhouse's annual Panto at The Playhouse musical celebration will be centered around one of our favorite fairytale princesses- and just in time for Christmas! A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS marks the 5th anniversary of Panto at The Playhouse and will feature comedy, magic, dancers from "So You Think You Can Dance" and contemporary music from Meghan Trainor to Michael Buble.

The cast of A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS stars Lauren Taylor as "Cinderella" (Disney Channel's "Best Friends Whenever"), Alex Newell as "The Fairy Godperson" (FOX's "Glee", HBO's "Vinyl"), Morgan Fairchild as "The Wicked Stepmother" (NBC's "Flamingo Road," CBS's "Falcon Crest"), Kenton Duty as "The Prince" (Disney Channel's "Shake it Up," ABC's "Lost"), Davi Santos as "Dandini" (Nickelodeon's "Power Rangers Dino Charge"), Matthew Patrick Davis as "Buttons" (Broadway revival of "Side Show,"), and Josh Adamson (ABC Family's "First Landing") and Ben Giroux (Nickelodeon's "Henry Danger") as "The Ugly Stepsisters."

BroadwayWorld correspondent, Maeve Riley, had the chance to catch up with the wonderful cast. Here's what they have to say about this exciting musical extravaganza!

BWW: How has your experience been working at the Pasadena Playhouse?

Lauren Taylor: My favorite part of working here has been being around all of these fantastic people who are all so incredibly talented and funny. It's been very humbling, because, I mean, WOW. Everyone is so good! It's a blast, and everyone is super kind and gracious. This has been an absolute dream come true. Every little girl wants to be Cinderella, and I can't believe I get to do that with this wonderful cast!

Alex Newell: I love it! There's such a sense of home. IT's so homey. I grew up in Boston, working at North Shore Musical Theatre. The sense of home that's there, where everyone knows everybody and there's such a warm community is the same here at the Pasadena Playhouse. I've ben looking like a theatre like that for a long time. I haven't gotten to work regionally in so long, since I was doing Glee and finishing my first album upon other projects I was doing. It's just really nice to be back to my first love, which is the stage.

Morgan Fairchild: It's just fabulous. It a legendary theatre, so just to actually get to work here is really fun. Of course it's supposed to be haunted, so I keep waiting to see what happens when we start running the show onstage! But it's such a wonderful venue. I grew up doing theatre when I was 10 years old, so I just love being here, and that feeling of being backstage and in the wings. Seeing everything behind the scenes that the audience doesn't see and getting ready is so interesting.

Kenton Duty: It has been awesome! Everyone is amazing, and we're all fans of each other, which is awesome. Davi and I will be singing our own little harmonies whenever Alex goes onstage, because we just think Alex is so amazing... *shouts to Alex Newell* YES, we're bragging about you again, Alex! Anyway, Morgan Fairchild is a legend, as well. She has so many incredible stories. It feels like we've been together for so long working with each other.

Davi Santos: I think it's such a gorgeous old theatre as well, so I have a huge respect for the theatrical architecture, and for all the people that we're relating to inside the space. This cast is full of rockstars. We haven't been together very long, and I feel like I've known them for years.

BWW: That's wonderful! What can you tell us about A Cinderella Christmas?

Lauren Taylor: I've LOVED Cinderella forever. When I was a kid, I dressed up as Cinderella for five years in a row! Aside from my love for this character, I love everything she stands for. Her motto is to have courage and be kind, and I think that really shines throughout the show. I also love that we're incorporating modern day things into a story that everyone has heard before. It gives us a fresh new take on an old story!

Alex Newell: It is so MAGICAL! There's so much magic in this show. It's just so fun. It's funny, everyone loves it. There are inside jokes that kids will get, and there's the inside jokes that only adults will get. Aside from this, it's familiar. Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, and on top of this, we're adding music that everyone knows and loves as well.

Morgan Fairchild: It's overall just a wonderful cast! The story is so cute and funny. All the young people in this show are very gifted. I love the guys who play my daughters, and Matt, who plays Buttons.

BWW: This show provides a very contemporary twist on theatre as a whole. What do you have to say about the progression and future of musical theatre and where we are right now theatrically in 2016?

Alex Newell: I love it! A lot of the shows that were coming to Broadway weren't new thoughts or original ideas. It was, "We're going to put this movie or book on stage, or we're going to take something that was successful in the past and put it on Broadway." We didn't have that Gershwin or Sondheim type. But now we have shows like Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton, and it's great. It's contemporary, and it's reinventing Broadway in a sense. It's reaching to the younger audiences, which it should, and still compels ticket buyers to attend these shows at the same time.

Morgan Fairchild: You know, when I lived in New York in the 70s, it was such a great time. Follies was on Broadway, which is still one of my all time favorite shows. To see shows like this, and to see productions like A Chorus Line, Annie, 42nd Street at the time was truly special. The direction it's going in now is a similar period of innovation. For a while, it seemed like everything was a redo of an old show. Now, it seems like it's getting to a period of new works within the theatre, which is great. The newer generation is expressing its voice and putting its stamp on what they want to express. I have a great fondness for a lot of the old shows, but it's always nice to see young people coming along to start a whole new creative process.

Kenton Duty: I'm very excited for the future of theatre. I teach acting through Gray Studios, and a lot of those kids are really into Hamilton. I don't think a lot of them were into theatre until that came out. It's very similar here with the Pasadena Playhouse Pantos. They're introducing theatre to younger audiences, and getting them involved in this craft and this specific pastime. It's so special to be able to interact with characters on a stage, it's very different from going to see a movie with everything behind a screen.

A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS will play from December 8, 2016 - January 8, 2017. One hour before the performance on select days, guests are invited to enjoy "Winter Wonderland" at The Pasadena Playhouse, complete with holiday crafts and activities. Tickets start at $25 and are available by calling The Pasadena Playhouse at 626-356-7529, or online 24 hours a day at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

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