Review: CINDERELLA Captivates in Music City Debut

Sumptuously designed, beautifully staged and wonderfully sung, Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella isn't the same show you may recall from childhood hours spent in front of a television or from scores of regional theater productions since, but with a new and refreshingly timely book by Douglas Carter Beane, along with the interpolation of four "new" songs from the R+H canon, the elaborate new production that's fresh off its first-ever Broadway run seems the ideal interpretation for the 21st century.

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With memories of the televised version that first debuted in 1957 with Julie Andrews and later updated with Lesley Ann Warren in 1965 fueling ticket sales to baby boomers - and with enough girl power and princely possibilities to attract younger audiences - the eye-poppingly gorgeous Cinderella now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday remains an entertaining and ultimately inspiring tale of the realization of long-held dreams and the pursuit of a love match that defies class lines and social structures.

Directed with finesse by Mark Brokaw, the national touring company of Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella brings Beane's new script for Cinderella to vibrant life on the Jackson Hall stage, delighting audience members of all ages (proof enough for me were the awe-inspired gasps of the two young women seated to my left and the rapturous attention paid to the onstage action by four-year-old Annelise, seated to my right for her first theatrical experience) with its time-honored score, set to Beane's upbeat and revised book which, arguably, somehow makes the story more palatable and more political (who knew that could be possible?), infusing it with some genuinely, perhaps outrageously, funny moments.

By adding new characters to the mix and by allowing others to evolve into something more appealing, the tale of Cinderella has more resonance and deeper meaning, adding to the centuries-old richness of both the character and those around her. The result is a more accessible story that allows 21st century audiences to identify with Cinderella and her struggles - and her desire to make more of herself and her life, as well as the lives of all those people around her. Cinderella seeks far more than to make a royal pairing to lift her out of a life of drudgery.

Brokaw's deft direction allows the audience to accept these changes in the musical's book without question and his attention to detail ensures audiences remain riveted to the story playing out before them, which is choreographed, by Josh Rhodes, with an almost effervescent glee that serves the material well and is performed by the company's capable ensemble of actors.

The show's visual design is nothing short of dazzling. In fact, William Ivey Long's exquisitely designed costumes (which thrillingly can change from the frumpy rags of a scullery maid to the haute couture required by a royal princess in a matter of seconds before your very eyes) may well be the stars of this stunningly appointed show. Played against the picturesque backdrop of Anna Louizo's imaginative scenic design sets the show squarely amid a fanciful woodland glen which seamlessly transforms into Prince Topher's royal palace, Madame's tasteful home or a rustic village marketplace. Kenneth Posner's lighting design accentuates the play's action with a consummate sense of artful illumination that helps to focus attention where need be.

Led by the fairy tale-perfect and wholesomely stunning Kaitlyn Davidson as Cinderella, the cast is consistently focused and thoroughly committed: they perform the familiar tale with the energetic intensity necessary to engage the audience and to propel the action forward, while delivering Beane's incisive new dialogue with measured wit. Davidson's spirited performance ensures she will be embraced by the people out in the darkened auditorium, while her rather naturalistic portrayal guarantees they will take her to their collective heart. In short, she becomes the Cinderella of one's childhood dreams, much to the delight of all the aspiring young princesses (and would-be princes, too) caught up in her performance.

Davidson plays opposite the tall, blond and handsome Andy Huntington Jones who, as Prince Topher, creates a sense of magically royal largesse with his charming performance and cuts a rather heroic figure as he slays dragons with a single unfurling of his slingshot or parries impressively with the occasional monster in the deep, dark forest. Davidson and Jones play off each other with an easy grace - and it's not hard to imagine the two romantic leads falling in love well before the clock strikes midnight. "Ten Minutes Ago" and "A Lovely Night" have never been more lushly and evocatively performed, to be certain, and Ella and Topher's playful flirtation sounds the right note for a budding romance in "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?" which remains one of the most beloved of Rodgers and Hammerstein's lyrical love songs.

Davidson and Jones are given ample and noteworthy support by Liz McCartney as "crazy" Marie/the fairy godmother, whose transformation is awe-inspiring, and her performance of "There's Music in You" (one of the new songs included in the score) is infinitely inspiring and beautifully sung, while her duet with Davidson on "Impossible" fulfills the need for a nostalgic memory that connects this production to previous ones. Blair Ross is delightfully despicable as Madame - Cinderella's somewhat sinister stepmother - delivering her lines with a fillip of cartoonish evil. Blake Hammond plays the unctuous Sebastian (Prince Topher's manipulative mentor) with a certain understated malevolence.

Nashville's own Will Blum (he's an alumnus of Hillsboro High School) is terrific as the "firebrand" Jean-Michel, wittily portraying the would-be revolutionary with a requisite blend of boyish enthusiasm and grown-up doubt. Kimberly Faure is sweetly compelling as the not-so-wicked stepsister Gabrielle (one of Beane's changes is to make her character more likable) and Aymee Garcia very nearly steals the show as the angrier, more stereotypical stepsister Charlotte. Garcia performs the always-entertaining "Stepsister's Lament" with the women of the show's ensemble in another of the moments in this production which contrasts - in the delicious manner of eating dessert first, a metaphor we are certain Charlotte would take a liking to - with earlier versions.

Richard Rodgers' score for Cinderella has perhaps never sounded better, and Valerie Gebert conducts the 14-member orchestra (made up of some of Nashville's finest musicians playing with the touring artists) with a flourish that ensures you'll walk out of the theater humming the songs with a certain lightness in your heart.

• Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella. Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. New book by Douglas Carter Beane. Original book by Oscar Hammerstein II. Directed by Mark Brokaw. Choreographed by Josh Rhodes. Music adaptation, supervision and arrangements by David Chase. Music direction by Valerie Gebert. Presented by the national touring company at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, Nashville. Through Sunday, October 25. For details, go to www.TPAC.org. Call (615) 782-4040 for ticket information. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes (with a 15-minute intermission - the audience has a lot of children in it, so ordering a drink pre-show or at intermission is a breeze).

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