November 14, 2005
Cinderella returns to UCSC for holiday season
By Scott Rappaport
Shakespeare Santa Cruz celebrates the holiday season with a return of its acclaimed musical version of Cinderella November 18 through December 18 at the UCSC Theater Arts Mainstage
Shoshana Brooks plays Cinderella in the Shakespeare Santa Cruz production.
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo |
Cinderella: A New Telling of an Old Tale was created for Shakespeare Santa Cruz by Paul Whitworth and Kate Hawley, with music composed and arranged by Gregg Coffin. The show opened to rave reviews in its 1999 world premiere and sold out again in 2000.
Whitworth, artistic director of Shakespeare Santa Cruz and
director of Cinderella, is well known to audiences in
the Bay Area and beyond for his work as both an actor and director.
Hawley, playwright and lyricist for the production, also wrote
the enormously popular holiday shows Gretel and Hansel and
The Princess and the Pea.
This creative version of the beloved fairy tale features extravagantly
outlandish costumes by B. Modern, exuberant choreography by
Terry Barto, and spectacular sets by Dipu Gupta. Director Whitworth
promises that all the colorful characters will be back: Cinderella,
Prince Charming, Little Bo Peep and her very naughty sheep,
along with the Ugly Stepsisters (Regan and Goneril) and Cinderella’s
astonishingly awful Stepmother, Mrs. Baden-Rotten.
The story of Cinderella has been a treasured folktale for many
years; over 300 versions had been collected from all over the
world by 1893, including one published in 1697. It also has
long been a favorite subject for "pantomime," a form
of theater unique to England that employs humor and music to
tell a traditional fairy tale. Shakespeare Santa Cruz's Cinderella
blends English pantomime with the American musical to create
a charmingly unique entertainment.
The San Francisco Chronicle noted that the company’s
Cinderella “hits the sweet spot that’s so
often missed in family shows. Intelligent and buoyant, lyrical
and silly, it plays to real people instead of an age-targeted,
holiday-market demographic.” The San Jose Mercury News
added: “Shakespeare Santa Cruz proved that intelligence
is not verboten in the usually saccharine world of holiday
entertainment with its wittily interactive Cinderella.”
The November 18 special preview price is $18. Tickets for all
other shows are $18/$14 for children age 12 and younger, $26/$21
for seniors/students/UCSC staff, and $32/$27 for the general
public.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the SSC web site or call the UCSC Ticket Office at (831) 459-2159.
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