Sing Hosanna brings magic to stage with ‘Cinderella’
In the 65 years since “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” first appeared on CBS with Julie Andrews playing the lead, this musical retelling of the vintage fairy tale has become one of America’s favorites. This weekend, Sing Hosanna, Butler County’s performing arts association dedicated to music and musicals, brings its take on this classic to Butler County Community College’s Succop Theater.
Anyone headed to the show is likely to know the story’s outline, which allows the theme, rather than the plot, to be the main thrust of the show. That knowledge, along with the use of sparse sets and live music, allows the cast and crew to lead viewers through a two-hour show time, with a 15-minute intermission, that seems much shorter.
The audience can sit and enjoy the orchestral music and broad comedy without worry that the princess won’t end up with her prince or that her wicked stepsisters won’t receive their comeuppance. With a reliance on simple props, costumes and lighting (with the exception of one blinding special effect) the director, Ralph Christy Jr., allows the lead actors’ voices to shine.
In the first scene of Act One, the audience is introduced to Prince Christopher, played by Matt Nocera, as he strolls the village square marketplace, incognito, in full Jerry Lewis’ Nutty Professor attire with thick glasses, baggy pants and clashing checks on his shirt and jacket. He bumps into Cinderella, packages spill, and they launch into their first duet, “The Sweetest Sounds”. Mia McGrady, as Cinderella, has a strong voice with clear phrasing that only became better as the show continues and she relaxes more on stage.
Megan Rockcastle as Lionella, Prince Christopher’s Royal Steward, does a lot of the show’s heavy lifting by moving the plot along with her strong stage presence. The stepsisters, Jordan Davis and TommyLynn Kilian, take special delight in the physicality of their roles, snorting, wheezing, lisping and pratfalling their way through both acts and providing a counterpoint to their demure stepsibling. Cinderella’s animal friends (Isabelle Colonna, Julane Tomko, Maranda Horstman, Kamryn Martin, and David Tomko) have almost as much stage time as the lead as they provide support and story structure without ever seizing too much attention or fading too far into the background.
The marketplace and ballroom scenes illustrate one of the challenges of a large production like “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella”. Sing Hosanna’s cast list for this show includes over 80 performers, with the majority being children. A steady directorial hand is needed to control that sort of potential chaos on stage, but director Christy does his job ably, especially in the second act ballroom scene where dozens of performers, many of them of elementary age, waltz and sing while staying in their light and off each other’s toes.
Older actors take on challenges as well. King Maximillian, played by Michael Traverso, and Queen Constantina, played by Grace Seybert, make dancing on a narrow throne platform a head’s height off the ground look easy and worry-free.
The climax of the show, the duet “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful” sung by Cinderella and Prince Christopher, allows the actors, now transformed from their shabby marketplace costumes to resplendent ball attire, to ask the audience to reflect on the nature of love itself and how the emotion’s transformative power rivals even a Fairy Godmother’s magic that can turn mice into horses and cats into coachmen. At the end of the song, the clock chimes midnight, Cinderella flees, and the iconic slipper is left behind setting off the resolution’s search, reunion, and inevitable happy ending.
For those who still believe in love at first sight or even cynics who are willing to suspend disbelief for the span of a show, Sing Hosanna’s production of “Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” provides an enjoyable evening of distractions from the everyday, non-magical world, an introduction to some fine local young actors and a message, as the full cast reminds us in the finale, that there’s not just magic in fairy tales, there’s magic in music too.
Sing Hosanna’s production of “Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” takes the stage at the Succop Theater at Butler County Community College at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12. Tickets can be purchased at singhosanna.ticketleap.com.
