Director’s Note

The inefable pairing of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (of Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Sound of Music, The King and I… acclaim) created Cinderella as a TV musical special starring Julie Andrews in the titular role in 1957. Various stage versions and a second flm version in 1967 continued to shape the work, adding characters and numbers along the way. However, the 1997 flm starring Brandy in the role of Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother and its beautifully diverse and brilliantly talented company broke the mold of this fairytale forever. As Marie, our fairy godmother so aptly says, “in the name of every girl who has ever wanted to change the world she lived in. In the name of possibility.” We began to demand more of this happily ever after.

Following in the footsteps of the 1997 flm, the show would break the Broadway stage for the frst time in 2013 with a reimagined story to tell. Douglas Carter Beane created a new book for the show with the goal of creating a fairytale for today. The show’s focus shifted from love at frst sight to themes of social justice, of calls for charity, generosity, kindness and the ability to bring change to those around us through forgiveness. The King and Queen are removed; Jean-Michel, a frebrand concerned with the needs of the poor in the community is added and becomes the love interest of one of our not-so-wicked stepsisters. More importantly, Topher becomes a well-intentioned and three dimensional young man though one riddled with self doubt; Ella becomes a young woman seeking to challenge the status quo. Her fairy godmother rewards her with the invitation to the ball, her glass slippers and magical gown as a reward for her selfessness and compassion.

While the story of Cinderella has always felt like a timeless fairy-tale to me—the notion of being whisked away from the toils of our lives by a prince (or having a host of singing mice and bird friends to share in the day to day)—this reimagining instead feels timely and so welcome. I look forward to embracing our world again with kindness, a celebration of magic and sense of wonder for new possibilities. It has been a pleasure to share in this production with students and colleagues. “It’s possible” feels an apt celebration of the launch of our new Musical Theatre Concentration together. For “impossible things are happening every day.”

Andres Marrufo - Artstic Director