“I could be Cinderella, mama,” she said through bright eyes as we watched costumes magically transform on stage while larger than life dance routines kept our hearts leaping at every beat from the magnificent orchestra. Preparation for the night began long before the first pull of the curtain, with a wand of pink shimmer across her lips and long straightening brushstrokes through her hair. Excitement mounted for our special night together, just the two of us, surrounded by pretty dresses, smiling faces and big dreams. 
But this Cinderella story is less about my girl, and not really even about Ella (the revised and modernized role of Cinderella in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Cinderella’), but about every girl who’s ever had a dream. About every heart that’s wanted more for those around her, every answer that’s been loving and kind in the face of ridicule and pain. 
Just a couple of nights ago, Aliyah and I were invited to the opening night performance of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway as it begins it’s cross country tour. With my girl on a booster seat next to me and arms intwined while we watched, I remembered the wonder of childhood, where everything is possible. And what’s more incredible, is that I feel that same way now. There is something amazing, big and beautiful inside of each of us, something that our world around us needs.
I felt myself inwardly chanting yes, yes, yes as the words that reached my core continued to pour in waves off of the stage, “In the name of every girl who has ever wanted to change the world she lived in. Go! with the promise of possibility!” – Fairy God Mother
This has been my heart lately, wanting every girl that I meet, both young and old, to realize the Cinderella potential inside. In this updated script by Douglas Carter Beane, Ella wasn’t washing floors waiting for change, waiting for her prince to come to her… yes there were obstacles to overcome, but she rose above for the change she wanted, dare I say needed, to see in the lives of those around her.
What is it that you have brewing inside of you? What are those dreams, those songs, those passions that have found a dormant place to lie? What’s stirring in your heart that seems like an impossible task?
“Don’t wait for everything to be perfect,” says Marie (the crazy, and comedic fairy Godmother), “just GO.”
That, my friends, is what is stirring in me today, through my ordinary, through the chores and the mundane and the blessed parts of life, I will live it extraordinarily. In a quote by Salle Redfield, “Don’t be willing to accept an ordinary life.” Yes, we all have grocery trips and laundry and life, but we can choose how we live it. YOU can choose extraordinary in the midst of ordinary.
Excited for my town to be the second stop on tour, Cinderella on Broadway has all the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein songs from the original, but Beane updated this modern take with equal parts fairy tale and romantic comedy that captures every age in the audience. There are perfect moments for laugh-inducing lines delivered effortlessly and audience interaction, namely the quiet moment where Price Topher kisses Ella’s hand and a young girl from the crowd yelled a loud, “Ewwww,” which brought a long wave of laughter. ‘Cinderella’ hadn’t seen a Broadway stage until just last year, and the national tour that began a few days ago is the first one ever. A big feat for the stage version of a classic tale is there are so many fresh twists intertwined with a timeless plot, you don’t really know where the story is taking you, and with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Tony award winning costume transformations, there literally is the feeling of magic in it for everyone.
Of course my eye was drawn to the star of Ella, played by Paige Faura, who not only dazzles in a pair of amazing shoes, she’s also balancing her role of motherhood to a baby boy while on tour. “It takes a lot of work, and a lot of coffee,” she says.
(No pun intended, but that did work out pretty nicely, didn’t it?!)
We were able to play Fairy God-Mother for a bit that night as well with the Straz Center! In conjunction with the company of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella and the Belle of the Ball Project they will accept donations of formal gowns, shoes and accessories during each of the performances of the Tony-award winning production. The partnership benefits Belle of the Ball Project, a nonprofit organization that provides homecoming and prom dresses to young women in need… because, “No girl should be denied a dance because of her financial situation.”
xo
Details: Oct. 21-26, Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets range from $56-$95 and may be purchased by calling 813.229.STAR (7827) or 800.955. or online at www.strazcenter.org.
Through a Straz Center and Tampa Bay Bloggers partnership, I received tickets to the opening performance of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.
Leave a Reply