“Spec-tacular” Cinderella This Holiday Season

Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati Unwraps a “Spec-tacular” Cinderella This Holiday Season, December 1-31, 2010

Throw out that glass slipper and break out your library card, because ETC’s Cinderella is utterly “spec-tacular”! From Joseph McDonough and David Kisor, the creators of Sleeping Beauty and The Frog Princess, this enchanted and memorable musical will delight audiences of all ages this holiday season. With many family-friendly early evening performances, Cinderella plays December 1-31, 2010. ETC Producing Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers directs with choreography by Dee Anne Bryll and original score composition by Fitz Patton. Former “Wonderettes” Brooke Rucidlo, Sara Mackie, and Mia Gentile reunite on stage in this year’s production and are joined by Cincinnati favorite Pam Myers who reprises her role as the stepmother Brunhilda.

What do you get when you combine a nearsighted bookworm heroine, two fabulously self-absorbed stepsisters, one devilishly diva stepmother, along with a self-empowering Well-Wisher? A fresh, fun contemporary take on the classic fairy tale that demonstrates being smart is true beauty. When the king pressures his romantically challenged son to choose a bride from hundreds of “applicants,” a cross-country tour of the kingdom to reunite a missing sneaker—yes sneaker!—with its rightful owner ensues after utter confusion erupts at the royal ball.

Each season, ETC produces a magical fairy tale musical written with families in mind. As a theatre that also seeks to nurture new audiences, ETC has specifically commissioned these shows that take classic fairy tales and give them a fresh, modern spin with contemporary cultural references to make the shows’ message accessible for the next generation of arts patrons. In ETC’s long tradition of “fractured fairy tales,” this year’s Cinderella is no exception.

“Let’s just say, our Cinderella is “spec-ta-cular”—from her glasses to the way in which she sees the world,” says D. Lynn Meyers. “Our Cinderella was written with the idea in mind that every child who attends the show in gym shoes and glasses walks away feeling like princes and princesses. Add in the idea of a Well-Wisher who can only support other characters’ decisions rather than magically grant them wishes, and you help teach children that they too have the power to make their own decisions and be assertive in what often can be a crazy world,” she concludes.