On my way home from our church building one Tuesday night in August after cub scouts, I noticed a poster for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella at the Subway stop. I immediately fell in love with the poster and decided that I needed to go to this Broadway play.
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I grew up watching the movie version of this play, the one with Leslie Ann Warren and Stuart Damon. My sisters and I called it "The Orange Cinderella" because she wore an orange dress while she was in servant mode and that is how we knew we weren't talking about Disney's version of Cinderella. Suffice it to say, this play brings back many a fond childhood memory and I LOVE the songs.
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That night, I went home and told Brian (not so subtly) that I would like tickets to go see Cinderella for my birthday. I wanted to go see it right away, but Broadway tickets aren't the cheapest, so to justify this expenditure it was going to have to coincide with a birthday or holiday. My birthday in November was the next such event.
True to form, Brian picked up on my hints and got us tickets to go the day after my birthday. It was a cold rainy night when we headed off to the Broadway Theater. The foyer of this particular theater is smaller than the two other theaters we have gone to, so we ended up waiting in line outside for 10 to 15 minutes in the cold before they opened the doors. I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the signs.
The interior of the theater was gorgeous. I thought the sparkling crystal chandeliers were fitting for the play. Our seats were located up in the balcony (a result of frugality), but Brian had splurged a little and gotten seats towards the front of the balcony. This section wasn't as crowded as the higher seats and it gave us a great view of the stage even though we were so far away.
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The story was mostly the same with the addition of a political subplot that wasn't a part of the movie version. Basically the prince's mentor was passing harsh laws and taking control of the kingdom without the prince's knowledge and over the course of the story the prince learns to stand up and take charge. That part of the story seemed like it was just kind of tacked on and not really made an integral part of the story, but just was mentioned here and there. Other than that, I absolutely loved it. I had a hard time not singing along with all of the songs and may have quietly mouthed the words along with the actors.
The girl who played Cinderella had an amazing voice and was very pretty.
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I was intrigued with the costume changes. They happened so fast, in the blink of an eye, right before your eyes. I still can't figure out how they did most of them. The Fairy Godmother wore a ratty cloak that just folded back to reveal her skirt which had pop up bustles. Cinderella's multiple costume changes were more sneaky. At one point I thought I saw the tail end of her cloak being pulled down through the stage, and at other points I think parts of her costume folded down to create a new skirt. Anyways, it was fun to watch and a little bit like magic.
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The famous part of Cinderella's story where she runs away from the ball and leaves one of her shoes on the steps occurred. However, she stopped and ran back and picked up her shoe and then ran away! I was so surprised that she did that and turned to Brian commenting indignantly "What? She wasn't supposed to do that?!" How was the Prince supposed to find her if she didn't leave her shoe? I was very confused, because I didn't remember that part in the movie either. Later in the play they meet again and she leaves a shoe with him as a means of finding her.
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I am so lucky to have a husband who constantly works to make all my dreams come true and who is willing to go and sit through girly plays with me. It was a very nice birthday and we had a lot of fun.
Wow! Beautiful!!!!
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