Pardon me for asking, but is nothing sacred anymore?
During the 1940s and ‘50s, the legendary team of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II collaborated on several of the greatest (or, at least, the most beloved and enduring) shows in musical-theater history: “Oklahoma!,” “Carousel,” “The King and I,” “South Pacific” and “The Sound of Music” among them.
They initially conceived their comparatively modest take on the famous fairy tale “Cinderella” for live television in 1957, in a suitably charming version of the story that featured a then-relatively unknown Julie Andrews in the title role, and it was remade for TV twice more, with Lesley Ann Warren in 1965 and Brandy (Norwood) in 1997.
By the time Broadway got its collective hands on the property for a 2013 production, the show was re-scripted by Douglas Carter Beane, the popular playwright of such caustic comedies as “The Little Dog Laughed” and “As Bees in Honey Drown,” in addition to the books for a couple of musical stage adaptations based on the movies “Sister Act” and “Xanadu.”
If only Aurora Theatre had opted to take a chance on the original, albeit old-fashioned, classic instead of settling for the lesser, albeit newfangled, revisionist rendition. From the company’s sumptuous new space on the Lawrenceville Arts Center’s 500-seat Strickland Grand Stage, with a talented director and choreographer like Ricardo Aponte at the helm, and boasting an exceedingly capable cast of some of Atlanta’s finest performers, the “promise of possibility” could have been much greater.
In Beane’s “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” he softens his trademark acerbic wit by imposing a modern political correctness on the period piece that often defies logic or reason, even under the magical and whimsical circumstances of the elemental fairy tale itself.
Among the new characters he introduces to the story is a revolutionary activist (well-played here nevertheless by Marcello Audino) with plans of opening a soup kitchen for the “common ragamuffins” of the village. And his love interest is one of the formerly wicked stepsisters (Candy McLellan), who has been reimagined by Beane as kind and considerate.
Credit: Courtesy of Casey Gardner Ford
Credit: Courtesy of Casey Gardner Ford
The winning India Tyree (Atlanta Lyric’s “Aida,” Georgia Ensemble’s “Once on This Island”) plays the eponymous heroine, now possessing a headstrong social consciousness that allows her to espouse platitudes about voting rights, democratic elections and voices deserving to be heard among the kingdom’s poorer citizens — although she inexplicably continues to submit to cruel mistreatment by her evil stepmother (Marcie Millard).
Atlanta newcomer Jackson Hurt cuts a dashing figure as Prince Topher, when it comes to swashbuckling against puppet giants and dragons; otherwise, this iteration of the character is a bit dim and slow on the draw as it relates to corrupted affairs of state.
Glorious vocalists both, the show’s musical highlights belong to Hurt and Tyree, including their duet standards “Ten Minutes Ago,” “Loneliness of Evening” and “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?” Tyree also scores with her solo “In My Own Little Corner,” and in “Impossible/It’s Possible” (with Rhyn McLemore as the Fairy Godmother). Musical director Ann-Carol Pence (on keyboards) leads Aurora’s polished 11-piece orchestra.
I can’t speak to Beane’s musicalized “Sister Act,” having never seen it, and “Xanadu” was a pretty crummy movie to begin with, one that could only stand to be parodied and improved upon. But his take on “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” is a clear case for not trying to fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place, and just leaving well enough alone.
THEATER REVIEW
“Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella”
Through April 3. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; 10 a.m. Wednesday (March 16 only). $10-$70. Strickland Grand Stage at the Lawrenceville Arts Center, 125 N. Clayton St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222, www.auroratheatre.com.
Bottom line: Sacrifices a lot its original fairy-tale charm for a politically corrected modern sensibility.
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