I saw this ballet version of Cinderella recently and I have some thoughts:
1. It’s good to know that the “British humour” advertized for this performance equates to cross-dressing stepsisters.
2. This fairy godmother calls on the fairies of the seasons to help her out, each of which appear with pages holding seasonal items. These pages are played by young boys and the autumn page holding a sheaf of wheat looked so numb and “whatever-I’m holding a sheaf of wheat, symbol of plenty, and yet I am hungry”-It was hilarious.
3. These seasonal fairies and the star fairies, also called upon to help Cinderella, all enter the ball with the heroine. Yet, everyone at court takes this as totally normal.
4. None of the other girls, not even the stepsisters, have any interest in the prince in this show. I found this very odd and have decided that these things mean that in this country the royal family has an ongoing arrangement with the fairy godmother to find the worthiest girl in all the land to wed each prince when he comes of age. Courtiers are absolutely off-limits as that would mess up the internal power dynamics of the country and pit the various aristocrats against one another and therefore, all the rich ladies at the ball already know the prince can’t marry them, he’s going to marry whatever girl shows up with fairies. As for the stepsisters, they were just distracted by…
5. THE FACT THAT NAPOLEON AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON ATTENDED THE BALL!
6. They must just like men in uniform.
7. I assume the country where this Cinderella takes place must be Andorra.
8. Both of these men are surprisingly good sports for that night.
9. That court jester, who wasn’t even the ordinary ballet dancer playing the jester on the night I saw it, was amazing! He jumped So High and had great chemistry with his jester head stick.
10. Whereas every other version of Cinderella I’ve seen has led me to believe that Cinderella’s slippers failed to disappear at midnight because the fairy godmother cared about her happiness, this rendition felt different. This time it seemed that the fairy allowed Cinderella to believe all would be lost, or remain as a memory in a slipper, primarily so that Cinderella would appreciate the prince more. After all, worthy or not, that doesn’t mean a girl will automatically fall in love with a guy, even if he’s a prince who everyone pushes you toward at the ball. The whole midnight/slipper ploy seems like this fairy’s way to cement the love connection on Cinderella’s side just as much as on the prince’s.
11. It was a lovely night!
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