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sophia_sol) wrote2019-03-30 09:00 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2019-03-30 09:00 pm
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Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella
A touring production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella came through my neck of the woods recently, and of course I had to go see it, since I grew up rewatching the 90's movie version over and over and over again.
My sister and I, in the lead-up to going to see the live theatre performance, watched all three of the made-for-tv movies of this musical. They all had their charms, but I don't think I'm biased in saying that the 90's version is the best of the three.
All three also had very different books, and rearranged the songs, and so forth. There isn't one canonical way that this musical must be told. The current live-theatre production of the musical, which has been touring for a few years now, is no exception. The book is totally rewritten yet again, adding new characters and even adding in an entire plot beyond just the romance aspect of the story.
And although I can see what they were going for with it.....I'm overall not a fan of the new book. There were some changes I really appreciated, like how Cinderella has multiple actual friends, but the added plot is just so over-simplistic that it seems silly.
The plot: the prince's parents have died, and a dude named Sebastien has been helping the prince rule until he is old enough to become king (he's never called a regent but that seems to be what he is). Sebastien is clearly taking advantage of the prince's ignorance and his trusting nature, and is doing some stuff that's not great for the people.
The people are upset that the country isn't doing as well as it was in the prince's parents' time! Poor people's land is being taken away from them!
Cinderella's friend Jean-Michel is a revolutionary trying to bring the prince's attention to the plight of the people. At the ball, Cinderella raises the issue with the prince, and after that he tries to pay more attention and figure things out. Eventually a solution is determined: they'll add a role of prime minister to the government, an elected official who acts as advisor to the ruler. The prince chooses two candidates to run for prime minister: Sebastien and Jean-Michel. Jean-Michel wins the election, and Sebastien cedes! Yay! Everything is fixed!
My questions: How malicious is Sebastien? What was he trying to do? Was he the one taking land away from the poor people, and to what purpose? Why does he just seem to give up and give in when he loses the election? What else is going on amongst the common people beyond the single oft-mentioned complaint of land being taken? Why is it seen as totally reasonable and not at all just a further extension of the ruler's power that the prince gets to choose who runs for election? Does anyone recognize that this "solution" only works so long as the king/prince in charge is generally a good person, which is no guarantee in a hereditary leadership position? ET CETERA. The princess fantasy only works if you don't draw attention to the ways in which hereditary monarchy is an imperfect method of governance, and once you bring that up you need to do a lot more to do right by it!
Moving on.
Cinderella straight-up forgives her awful stepmother with no indication of contrition from the stepmother, and forgiveness seems to be portrayed by the simplistic understanding that it means all of the past can just be swept under the rug. Um. That's...not actually the healthiest approach to the relationship between someone and their abuser.
Each updated version of this musical is made to speak to its cultural zeitgeist, and this is no exception, but the prince as an awkward disaffected millennial who doesn't know who he is or how to adult is clearly supposed to be relatable and instead is just offputting. And honestly the romance as a whole is suuuuuuuuper awkward.
A character is just plain named "Crazy Marie" which.....cool. Yup. Ableist slurs are great, right?
I liked some of the song order rearrangement (the placement of There Is Music In You was great), and some I really didn't (Do I love You Because You're Wonderful is put AFTER enough has happened that Cinderella has directly shown her wonderfulness and it came across like the prince was just dismissing her accomplishments!)
Overall though despite my complaints I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it, I critique 100% from a place of love. I had a grin on my face throughout.
Some of the things I particularly enjoyed about this production included:
- all the dancing, especially by the people in tight pants so you can admire the athletic accuracy of what their legs do, and most especially by the transformed fox and raccoon
- the music and the singing and all that, like, hard to go wrong I know, but it was great
- Cinderella's costume changes! Impressively-done stage magic!
- The bad stepsister. She was honestly great and possibly my favourite character in this production, just so very straightforward and unapologetic.
- Sebastien's long flowy coat looked glorious
- Seeing it with my sister!
My sister and I, in the lead-up to going to see the live theatre performance, watched all three of the made-for-tv movies of this musical. They all had their charms, but I don't think I'm biased in saying that the 90's version is the best of the three.
All three also had very different books, and rearranged the songs, and so forth. There isn't one canonical way that this musical must be told. The current live-theatre production of the musical, which has been touring for a few years now, is no exception. The book is totally rewritten yet again, adding new characters and even adding in an entire plot beyond just the romance aspect of the story.
And although I can see what they were going for with it.....I'm overall not a fan of the new book. There were some changes I really appreciated, like how Cinderella has multiple actual friends, but the added plot is just so over-simplistic that it seems silly.
The plot: the prince's parents have died, and a dude named Sebastien has been helping the prince rule until he is old enough to become king (he's never called a regent but that seems to be what he is). Sebastien is clearly taking advantage of the prince's ignorance and his trusting nature, and is doing some stuff that's not great for the people.
The people are upset that the country isn't doing as well as it was in the prince's parents' time! Poor people's land is being taken away from them!
Cinderella's friend Jean-Michel is a revolutionary trying to bring the prince's attention to the plight of the people. At the ball, Cinderella raises the issue with the prince, and after that he tries to pay more attention and figure things out. Eventually a solution is determined: they'll add a role of prime minister to the government, an elected official who acts as advisor to the ruler. The prince chooses two candidates to run for prime minister: Sebastien and Jean-Michel. Jean-Michel wins the election, and Sebastien cedes! Yay! Everything is fixed!
My questions: How malicious is Sebastien? What was he trying to do? Was he the one taking land away from the poor people, and to what purpose? Why does he just seem to give up and give in when he loses the election? What else is going on amongst the common people beyond the single oft-mentioned complaint of land being taken? Why is it seen as totally reasonable and not at all just a further extension of the ruler's power that the prince gets to choose who runs for election? Does anyone recognize that this "solution" only works so long as the king/prince in charge is generally a good person, which is no guarantee in a hereditary leadership position? ET CETERA. The princess fantasy only works if you don't draw attention to the ways in which hereditary monarchy is an imperfect method of governance, and once you bring that up you need to do a lot more to do right by it!
Moving on.
Cinderella straight-up forgives her awful stepmother with no indication of contrition from the stepmother, and forgiveness seems to be portrayed by the simplistic understanding that it means all of the past can just be swept under the rug. Um. That's...not actually the healthiest approach to the relationship between someone and their abuser.
Each updated version of this musical is made to speak to its cultural zeitgeist, and this is no exception, but the prince as an awkward disaffected millennial who doesn't know who he is or how to adult is clearly supposed to be relatable and instead is just offputting. And honestly the romance as a whole is suuuuuuuuper awkward.
A character is just plain named "Crazy Marie" which.....cool. Yup. Ableist slurs are great, right?
I liked some of the song order rearrangement (the placement of There Is Music In You was great), and some I really didn't (Do I love You Because You're Wonderful is put AFTER enough has happened that Cinderella has directly shown her wonderfulness and it came across like the prince was just dismissing her accomplishments!)
Overall though despite my complaints I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it, I critique 100% from a place of love. I had a grin on my face throughout.
Some of the things I particularly enjoyed about this production included:
- all the dancing, especially by the people in tight pants so you can admire the athletic accuracy of what their legs do, and most especially by the transformed fox and raccoon
- the music and the singing and all that, like, hard to go wrong I know, but it was great
- Cinderella's costume changes! Impressively-done stage magic!
- The bad stepsister. She was honestly great and possibly my favourite character in this production, just so very straightforward and unapologetic.
- Sebastien's long flowy coat looked glorious
- Seeing it with my sister!
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