On Saturday, my sister and I went up to Cleveland's Playhouse Square to see the revival of Oscar & Hammerstein's Cinderella. I got the tickets as a Christmas present, and I was looking forward to seeing the show. Admittedly, Cinderella is far from my favorite musical- it's predictable, the songs are somewhat forgettable and "meh," and I personally have never found there to be much substance in the character of Cinderella in the first place.
So, while I heard excellent things about the costumes and the like about the revival, my expectations were still fairly low.
I was pleasantly surprised by the show! Along with updating the costumes/special effects of the show, the story was told in a new way that allowed for significant character development for even the smallest role, the script was clever and full of hilarious one-liners, and for the first time, there was actual substance to all the characters as opposed to the flat, static roles they've had in literally every adaptation of Cinderella ever. Whereas in the Disney version, the original Oscar & Hammerstein version, and many modern adaptions the characters lack a great deal of personality other than traits that make them "good" or "evil." It was a really refreshing update which made the story less predictable!
The songs also seemed to have an update. While there were the classics from the original musical, some new bits were added in that positively affected the pacing of the show.
And the costumes... oh my GOD the costumes!!! From the get-go, they were all gorgeous, intricately designed pieces, but once the onstage transformations happened, it was absolutely spectacular! The costume designer for the show was clearly a genius! There were also some fantastic special effects on the stage like puppets, pyrotechnics, and more! After watching every bit of "magic", people couldn't help but loudly applaud.
Overall, Cinderella far exceeded my expectations. It was some perfectly executed theater, and was something I could have watched over and over even if only for the onstage "magic!"
