For every Colorado kid who grows up to be a Broadway star, there are the lucky ones left behind who one day get to say, “I saw her when …”
Like, say, Annaleigh Swanson in “Cinderella” at the Town Hall Arts Center in 2000. Or Melissa Benoist and Seth Caikowski in “Cinderella” at the Town Hall Arts Center in 2006.
Swanson will soon appear on Broadway in “Legally Blonde.” And I guarantee you, Town Hall audiences will one day look back fondly for having seen the show that paired Benoist and Caikowski on their way to the moon.
Town Hall’s “Cinderella” was then – and is now – directed by Sharlene Wanger, who is in her element bringing to life this whimsical fairy tale adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein as a Julie Andrews TV special in 1957, when it drew 107 million viewers. I’m not sure of her formula, but Wanger claims if it were on Broadway, it would need to play to capacity for 110 years to equal that audience.
So … Cinderella. … What can you say? Have you heard the story? … Thought so. It’s about a gazillion years old, so there is an unavoidable inevitability about the whole thing.
But this is an old-fashioned family musical that may choke on its own sweetness. It’s about how anything is possible, if you first learn how to help yourself. These are still valuable lessons for youngsters – I just wish the teaching of those lessons weren’t so inextricably and archaically tied to snaring men.
Actually, there’s a lot about the “Cinderella” myth that’s bugged me since I was 6. Is her father dead or just absent? (I know the answer, but it’s not answered here). And if her prince is so in love with her, why can’t he remember her face? Why does he need a shoe to recognize her? Are we really to buy that no one else has Cinderella’s shoe size? And why didn’t the magic slipper revert to a ratty old shoe at midnight along with the carriage and the gown? Most bothersome is the competition between stepsisters fighting for a man to bring purpose to their petty lives.
I know: modern quibbles for an old fable. I finally came to peace with my conflict by deciding that “Cinderella” is everything it needs to be … for the people who need it.
And there is much to admire about this staging. As for Caikowski and Benoist, what can you say? They just go together. They look so much like a real prince and princess, Walt Disney could not have done a better casting job.
With her performances this year in “Bye, Bye Birdie,” “A Chorus Line,” and now “Cinderella,” the 18-year-old Benoist has grown up in front of our eyes – kind of like how Cinderella blossoms in the course of this musical. When Benoist sings, “the world will open its arms to me,” she’s being prescient. Just you wait.
The fresh-faced pair are backed by a fine ensemble. Nancy E. Harris and Deborah Persoff are back as the respective moms. It’s always a pleasure to hear Harris’ pleasant, operatic voice, and Persoff’s humanity keeps Cinderella’s stepmother from fading into clichés of wickedness. Kirsten Krieg and Maggie Tisdale are deliciously snarky as stepsisters who are thankfully more self-centered than evil. My 13-year-old guest was particularly tickled by the befuddled prince’s pop (Phil Bernier).
One nagging question about “Cinderella” is how to categorize it. Is this children’s theater or mainstage fare that happens to skew young? Tough to say, but I saw kids – the most honest of theater audiences – leaning forward, hanging on every word. Yes, it’s fundamentally a children’s story, but it is staged with enough magic and complexity to engage adults as well.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“Cinderella” | *** RATING
MUSICAL|Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St., Littleton|Written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II|Directed by Sharlene Wanger|Starring Melissa Benoist, Seth Caikowski, Deborah Persoff and Carla Kaiser Kotrc|THROUGH DEC. 31|7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays|2 hours|$16-$33|303-794-2787 or
townhallartscenter.com
