Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Heather Davies
Grand Theatre, London
December 2, 2011-January 7, 2012
“The Sweetest Sounds”
The Grand Theatre’s production of Cinderella is a delight from beginning to end. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the musical for television in 1957. Tom Briggs is credited with adapting the teleplay but the credit really belongs to director Heather Davies who has made it work so wonderfully. This gem of a musical is so well performed and presented that it makes an ideal holiday entertainment for young and old alike.
Rodgers and Hammerstein are best known for the five musicals they wrote from 1943 to 1959 that have become signal works of the golden age of the Broadway musical. Cinderella may be on a smaller scale than South Pacific or The Sound of Music, but it shows a sense of whimsy not found in their large-scale musicals. The main impediment in transferring a musical written for television to the stage is that television makes instantaneous and frequent changes of scene easy. Hammerstein used the advantages of the new medium but this made subsequent attempts to stage the piece more difficult, and Briggs’ adaptation still has far more scene changes than one would expect in a two-hour-long musical. Luckily, a director like Davies and her set designer Bill Layton have found ways not merely to meet the challenge of frequent scene changes but to make them part of the fun of the show.
The side curtains called “legs” are painted in a variety of styles that suggest the painted borders of old manuscripts. These stay in place while Layton uses a series of beautifully painted drops and shutters whose rising and falling and sliding in from the wings gives movement to every change as they combine and recombine for every setting. Layton has had these drops and shutters painted in folkloric motifs that suggest both the antiquity of the Cinderella story itself and the innocence of a child’s picture book. The palette of earth tones and pastels perfectly captures the cozy mood of the piece. The only strange discrepancy is that Gillian Gallow’s colourful costumes clearly locate the action in the 1950s while Layton has made the village that the characters visit entirely Art Nouveau.
Those used to the much-loved original cast recording will have to get used to the small, girl-like voice of Alessia Lupiano as Cinderella. It doesn’t have the richness of Julie Andrews’ voice but Lupiano conveys such sincerity and vulnerability that she wins you over almost at once. It seems quite natural that Cinderella as Lupiano plays her would have her own “little corner” to retreat to dream of a better, more exciting life.
As Prince Christopher, the Prince Charming of the piece, Kyle Golemba has understudied major roles at the Stratford Festival for several years, so it is good to see him shine on his own. He has a strong, fresh voice and gift for bringing out the meaning of every song. “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?” can often sound like the Prince is confused by love, whereas Golemba turns it into deeper inquiry into why he has fallen in love with someone he barely knows. The production uses the 1997 version of the musical that adds three songs by Rodgers from various sources. Not only does Golemba sing “The Sweetest Sounds” from No Strings (1962) and “Loneliness of the Evening” (cut from South Pacific) beautifully, but he uses them to portray the Prince as filled with greater yearning than is usually the case.
Susan Henley is hilarious as Cinderella’s Stepmother, but while she is mean and vain she also suggests a certain hopeless desperation in her efforts to urge her obviously deficient daughters to snare the Prince. Jenny Hall and Jennifer Stewart as Cinderella’s inaptly named stepsisters are both fine comediennes with Hall taking the cake as she huffs and puffs and turns red in the face trying to force on the inflexible glass slipper even when it’s obvious it will never fit.
Keith Savage and Robin Hutton make a fine King and Queen. The new version replaces the song “Your Majesties” with “Boys And Girls Like You And Me” that was cut from the telecast. This song makes it clear that the Prince’s parents want to see him married not just out of duty but to know he has the same kind of love they share. Steven Gallagher gets much more out of Lionel, the major-domo, than I’ve seen before. He makes him obsessed with dignity and propriety even though almost every situation he’s in, such as listing the full given names of the royals, undermines him at every turn.
Rebecca Poff is not the squat grandmotherly Fairy Godmother of the Disney movie but rather a tall, stylish woman who knows the ways of the world. She delivers “Impossible” and “There’s Music in You” with great panache. With the tree marking the grave of Cinderella’s mother in the background, Poff intimates, though ever so slightly, that this Fairy Godmother has perhaps come to help Cinderella for maternal motives.
With this, as with so many other touches, Davies helps to give the story more emotional depth. One great idea I’ve never seen in any treatment of the story is to show the Prince fall in love with Cinderella all over again while she’s in her rags surrounded by her relations ready to try on the slipper. This makes the glass slipper just a symbol of the larger fate that has decreed that these two people belong together.
Video designer Rory Leydier must be mentioned for creating the scene where the pumpkin grows (via projected animation) into a golden coach with four horses and footmen. This is such an impressive effect I’m sure youngsters in the audience will remember it for a long time to come.
This lovely, well considered production deserves to be a massive hit for the Grand. No musical currently on offer in Southern Ontario creates such a warm mood and none, of course, can boast an array of songs as memorable and lush as those by Rodgers and Hammerstein. If you don’t live in the London area, consider visiting just to see this show. You’ll be glad you did.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Jenny Hall, Jennifer Stewart, Susan Henley and Alessia Lupiano.
©2011 Claus Andersen.
For tickets, visit www.grandtheatre.com.
2011-12-06
Cinderella