Rodgers & Hammerstein on Broadway! New Production!



OK, well the show is over. Here's my opinion:

It's got that gorgeous old Rodgers & Hammerstein score that we baby boomers remember 

from TV (Ten Minutes Ago, A Lovely Night, In My Own Little Corner, Impossible!, etc.) 

mixed with gorgeous sets & costumes (Into the Woods meets A Little Night Music on the 

way to Beauty & the Beast) and gorgeous symphonic orchestrations that sweep you away 

with goose bumps.

It's color blind casting but still uneven. One one hand you have Broadway's best: Tony 

winner Victoria Clark (Light in the Piazza) as the Fairy Godmother Marie. In this version she

starts as a homeless woman named Marie and then blossoms into the Fairy Godmother, 

complete with WINGS and yes she flies, as the Wicked Stepmother the fabulous Harriet 

Harris (Tony winner from Thoroughly Modern Millie and you may remember her from 

Desperate Housewives as "Felicia"), as Cinderella, the beautiful petite soprano Laura Osnes 

(Bonnie & Clyde, Anything Goes and Grease), Ann Harada (Smash, Avenue Q), and others.

But the tall, dashing prince has been turned into a short, ethnically uncertain schlump with a 

gorgeous baritone voice (Santino Fontana) who is trying to "find" himself.

It's an attempt to update Cinderella for a modern audience with uneven results: less sexist, 

more politically correct...you get the idea. Disney does this sort of thing all the time. 

Example: they talk of soup kitchens and labor protests in the kingdom, Cinderella is the 

"plucky" little virgin with a heart of gold, lots of common sense and Hilary Clinton's instinct 

for politics. 

But it's still funny...gorgeous to watch and those magical costume changes (rags to a ball 

gown) are incredible...quite a hat trick...LIVE on stage, yet. 

And those Rodgers & Hammerstein songs...WOW....still magic.





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