Fairytale comes true for Cinderella

They’ve tweaked the fairytale but not too much and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is funny and flawless, and terrific entertainment for the whole family, writes Phil Brown.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – MAY 25: Silvie Paladino at the media preview of "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" at the Regent Theatre on May 25, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Sam Tabone/WireImage)

The last musical I saw in the Lyric Theatre at QPAC had me dry retching. No not Disney’s Frozen, that was brilliant. It was the one after that which nearly made me lose my dinner.

Oh never mind, the point is that there was no near regurgitation experience involved in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Quite the contrary.

It’s fun, has high production values as it would thanks to producers Opera Australia and John Frost for Crossroads Live, a brilliant cast, great music and songs. And it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

It’s kind of the perfect show really in lots of ways and this is why you go out to the theatre. To see something really good. It’s not rocket science is it? But you’d be surprised how much rubbish gets put on.

Ainsley Melham as Prince Topher and Shubshri Kandiah as Cinderella. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

And while I often resist standing ovations and sit with my arms crossed and a face like Mount Rushmore, this time I happily got to my feet to applaud the people who just gave me a terrific two and a quarter hours worth of entertainment.

When Brisbane’s own Shubshri Kandiah, who plays Ella, Cinderella that is, came on to take a bow the young women in front of me went apesh-it. She obviously has a fan base just a few years into her career, a career that is turning out to be quite stellar.

Kandiah went straight from the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, onto the big stage at QPAC in Aladdin and her star has been rising ever since. She’s had rave reviews in the Melbourne season of this show and she really is a superstar with a voice from heaven. Okay she may be from Perth originally but she is now a Brisbane local and loving it and we are claiming her as a Queenslander. And she sung the national anthem at State of Origin last year and that makes her maroon in my mind.

Her aspiring beau in this show is Ainsley Melham who plays Prince Topher. He was Aladdin to her Princess Jasmine in that first groundbreaking appearance of hers and they make a wonderful couple on stage and both are superb actors as well as singers.

It’s a big colourful cast with everyone at the top of their game. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Everybody else is terrific too and the sets and costumes are fabulous and the whole thing is so, well professional. The wicked stepmother, or Madame as she is in this version of the classic story, is usually Tina Bursill but was Debora Krizak on Tuesday for opening night and she was brilliantly awful. Debora will play the role of Madame for the entire Brisbane season.

Special mention for Nicholas Hammond too, a theatre legend who we all remember as Friedrich Von Trapp in the movie The Sound of Music. He has what we call “presence” and was terrific as Sebastian, who is Prince Topher’s Machiavellian right hand man, a kind of Thomas Cromwell character if you’ll pardon a Wolf Hall comparison.

Now we come to Silvie Paladino who plays the fairy godmother and she is all a fairy godmother should be and more and there are some special effect moments with her that are just beautiful, not to mention breathtaking. You’ll see.

The step sisters are great too with Bianca Bruce as Charlotte and Matilda Moran as Gabrielle. Bianca Bruce kind of steals the show at times with her antics and her tantrums and she makes us laugh. Matilda Moran’s Gabrielle is gorgeously sympathetic.

Look, everybody is fantastic and there is no unsavouriness or obscenity or bondage (like there was in that awful musical) but there is plenty of wit and humour and an authentic message of hope inherent in the story which is about social justice and kindness and would pass the Dalai Lama’s compassion test. The essential fairytale is still there pretty intact with your pumpkin carriage and your glass slippers and your clock striking midnight and all that. The original book for the musical was by Oscar Hammerstein II himself with the new book by Douglas Carter Beane who has done a beautiful bit of writing here. And of course the music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein are wonderful as they would be.

It’s a great story, one for the ages and worth retelling and they do that so well in this show. Go and see for yourself. Tell them I sent you.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is on in the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, until September 3

qpac.com.au

Originally published as Fairytale comes true for Cinderella