<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman">The
slipper fits for touring, storybook telling of ‘Cinderella’<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"
align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; tab-stops: 1.0in 5.25in"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">The making of the Broadway
musical “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” is a bit of a fairytale story in
itself.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Once there was an enchanting
actress known as Julie Andrews, who was seeking a star vehicle for a new medium
called television.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Taking an
ancient folktale of European origin<SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#252525>,
which </FONT></SPAN>had since been sanitized and transformed into an animated
film by a mouse called Disney, corporate executives at CBS conjured a new script
about the young woman <SPAN style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#252525>forced into a
life of servitude by her cruel stepmother. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And they commissioned a new</FONT></SPAN>
score from the legendary songsmiths Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard
Rodgers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Simply staged for the small
screen, the live broadcast of “Cinderella” reached over 100 million viewers in
1957, was revived in 1965 (starring Lesley Ann Warren) and again in 1997
(featuring Brandy, with Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother). <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The musical remained relatively dormant
for a decade until it was reimagined for the Broadway stage by playwright
Douglas Carter Beane.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Beane revisited French author
Charles Perrault’s early interpretation of the story and worked in some
modern-day sensibilities as well.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">The result offers a
courageously kind and occasionally sassy Cinderella who rescues the floundering
Prince – now an orphan whose leadership is being undermined by the scheming Lord
Protector, Sebastian – as much as he rescues her.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Also in this version, the
evil step-mother and step-sisters are more human and humorous, with step-sister
Gabrielle depicted as a sympathetic character in love with a political radical
seeking better treatment for the poor.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">Additional songs are
introduced that have been lifted from other Rodgers and Hammerstein scores and
scattered throughout this production.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman">The new “Cinderella” opened
in midtown Manhattan in 2013 and ran for nearly two years with reviews that
either found the glass slipper half full or half empty.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The national tour of the show, which
began in 2014, has just stopped at Playhouse Square to cast its spell over local
theatergoers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">For the rest of this review, go to </FONT></SPAN><A
style='href: "http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/"'><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi'><FONT
color=#0000ff
face="Times New Roman">www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 8pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>