Tara Melia Hunt sports quite an obvious (if decorative) smudge of dirt across her forehead in the Diamond Head Theatre production of "Cinderella" which opened last Friday. This is consistent with most versions of the fairy tale, Cinderella being the sort of girl who performs the household's ugliest chores. Steamrolling
to the ballBy Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.comYet according to Bruno Bettelheim, author of "The Uses of Enchantment," our association of the world's most celebrated domestic servant with filth and squalor is the result of a mistranslation of the French "Cendrillon," a word that more accurately refers to a girl who lives among ashes rather than cinders.
What's the difference? Well, as Bettelheim points out, ashes are white and powdery (read innocent), the result of complete combustion, while cinders are black and dirty. And our ultimate impression of this literary celebrity has everything to do with the combustible company she keeps.
After all, Charles Perrault, who wrote the version of the story most of us are familiar with (via storybooks, Disney, and Rodgers and Hammerstein) stressed this element of the tale even as he invented other devices (e.g., the glass slipper) which further distanced the story from its roots in 9th century China, not to mention its roots as an Oedipal tale of parental defiance.
In his hands, Cinderella became a dingy-yet-sweet doormat, a girl who appears ready and willing to acquiesce to a life of grime and cruelty at the hands of her stepsisters. In other words, someone who'd still be sweeping that basement if it weren't for the lucky intervention of a fairy godmother.
In rejiggering their Cinderella for the modern world circa 1957, Rodgers and Hammerstein were forced to integrate many of musical theater's demands. Thus Cinderella became a girl of pluck and grit (like Nellie Forbush and later Maria Von Trapp) who isn't about to leave her fate to chance.
Tara Hunt captures this restlessness from the start. Perhaps she's still in transition from her Diamond Head role as the floozy Norma in "Victor/Victoria," but there's little doubt that this Cinderella is going to the ball or that she's going to win that prince.
In part, the show's continuing appeal is due to the beefing up of Cinderella's initiative by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Ever since it premiered on television with Julie Andrews in the title role (a landmark event that drew more than 100 million viewers) the show has been a favorite with audiences. (Rodgers said the musical would have had to play 110 years on Broadway to reach what TV could accomplish in one night.)
A 1965 TV remake was also a success, as was the 1997 version with Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the Fairy Godmother (reaching an audience of 60 million).
"Cinderella" showcases Hammerstein at his best, the deceptively simple-sounding lyrics of "In My Own Little Corner," full of ingenious internal rhymes that bring smiles to adults' faces. The present production, meanwhile, is at its best when allowing diction experts like Hunt to deliver these words in song, and though she's rather miscast as the ingenue here, Hunt's voice is so lovely we're hardly going to protest.
As the aforementioned prince, Atlanta native Jason D. Wells presents a bit more of a problem, although he is certainly handsome enough. Program notes describe Wells as a veteran of productions of '70s-era musicals like "Godspell," and his pop vocal style would seem better suited for that sort of material.
As played here, the prince is hardly the progeny of this particular King and Queen (Laurence Paxton and Stefanie Smart), the latter appearing to have jumped off a deck of cards en route to a road production of "Camelot."
But it's Paxton and Smart who best understand the alternately tongue-in-cheek and reverential tone Rodgers and Hammerstein were going for here, and the actors' ability to strike a happy balance makes these the best performances in the show. Paxton dots every I and crosses every T, and his antics amount to a master class in appropriate hamminess.
Also firmly over-the-top, to happy effect, are Lisa Konove, Euphrosyne Rushforth and Stacey Pulmano as Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters. The set and costume designers (Michael Boyer and Karen G. Wolfe) are clearly on the same page as these actors, producing images both gaudy and humorous at once.
"Cinderella" doesn't deserve the superlatives the original production received. During long stretches it has all the bubbly lightness of day-old champagne. But children who love this story (it's one of the few fairy tales that's equally popular with girls and boys) won't be disappointed.
Diamond Head has added Saturday matinees to accommodate the demand, which is one way of saying that this bright musical fantasy is, finally, critic-proof.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays, through July 22 "Cinderella"
Where: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave.
Cost: $10 to $40
Call: 733-0274
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