Friday, June 21, 2024
The music from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is my favorite. I like ballads, I like waltzes, I like Cinderella songs. Keith got an email from the Woodbury community theater today advertising their production. We were free tonight, so off we went.
The orchestra was not good. Sometimes bad. The upside is that the stage microphones were great and the singing was great and the singers drowned out the orchestra often. On the quiet songs, when the band was really exposed (and darn) I really don’t know how the soloists pulled their pitches out of thin (polluted?) air.
The production was “updated”. I get that the story of Cinderella is a bit (BIT) dated and thin, but I also accept that it is a FAIRY TALE. The updating included an evil regent, a socially conscious protestor, a nice ugly stepsister, and some social justice chat. None of those things are bad, but it would have been much better to entirely rewrite the show and put all of that in, instead of keeping the entirety of the original and just adding scenes and a few songs. It felt awkward. Keep the music, write a new book, and get on with it.
Nobody asked me. Again.
We got into the car, and I asked Keith what he thought. I thought he would comment on the band, but he said, “Somebody needs to get Cinderella better dresses. She kept wearing bags. It did not look good.” I definitely agreed but was very surprised he noticed.
My friend, Carla, and I drove all over Woodbury today putting up posters for the brass band concert here in Woodbury on July 2. We got lots of yeses and one I have to ask the manager. Success. I hope people come – it will be a good concert.