Ballet Theatre of Ohio's Cinderella

Marrying filthy rich. Family dysfunction. Sibling rivalry. Cruel shoes. Sounds like fun to us, so we’re making the drive to Akron Civic Theater for Ballet Theater of Ohio’s upcoming performance of Cinderella. Just like the real life story of Katie Holmes marrying Tom Cruise or the movie Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, Cinderella is the politically incorrect story of a girl with nothing who hits the jackpot by snagging Mr. Right. Innumerable ballet companies big and small have worked and reworked this fairy tale classic. Nureyev’s version for Paris Opera Ballet played with a Hollywood theme. Houston Ballet brought a witty version to Cleveland in 2004. BTO’s artistic director / choreographer Christine Meneer has stuck close to the Charles Perrault / Walt Disney telling, casting a beautiful dancer with beautiful lines, Jessica Schroeder, as Cinderella and the youthful and handsome Eric Carvill as the Prince. The result is pure family fare.

Amidst all this happy ending stuff, thank goodness for the ugly stepsisters. British ballet companies have a long comic tradition of casting older male dancers in drag as the ugly stepsisters, but our favorite approach is that taken by BTO, following in Nureyev’s footsteps by casting ballerinas Andrea Blankstein and Eryn Hanes as the stepsisters and giving them lots of broad physical comedy. When we telephoned BTO’s marketing director Val Renner to hear how rehearsals were going, we learned that Blankstein and Hanes had totally liberated themselves from the stifling propriety that ballerinas are sometimes subjected to, unleashing their inner harpies in rehearsals complete with “hair-pulling” and “knocking each other down.” “I can’t watch them rehearse without laughing,” reported Renner. “They’re having a blast.”

BTO didn’t skimp on the set designs by, among others, Hollywood set designer Jack Ballance. A quick Google search reveals his latest movies, Mad Money and Blonde Ambition, and a current project for director Wes Craven. Lighting design is by the omnipresent Dennis Dugan.

Everybody has their own personal favorites from the well-known Prokofiev score, which is charming and tuneful, with an undercurrent of irony. One has to love the sumptuous “Grand Waltz” and the tender “Amoroso,” the pas de deux that ends the ballet… but we’re especially looking forward to two short pieces early in the first act, “The Sisters’ New Clothes” and “The Dancing Lesson” - music for ballerinas behaving badly. We can hardly wait.

Experience Cinderella Saturday, May 3 at 2PM and 7PM; Sunday, May 4 at 2PM. Tickets are available at the Akron Civic Theatre Box Office (330-253-2488) and TicketMaster at (330-945-9400). Log onto BTO’s website at http://www.ballettheatreohio.org to receive a special discount ticket offer and to learn of special discounts for Girl Scouts and group rates.

Doors open one hour prior to each performance so that patrons can have their picture taken with Cinderella, shop the ballet boutique, and view the top entrants in “The Greatest Shoe on Earth Contest.” BTO has thought outside the shoe box by inviting contestants from kindergarten thru 12th grade to design a shoe to replace Cinderella’s lost slipper. The top twenty five shoes will then be displayed in the Civic Theatre during the production of Cinderella. For more Details on the contest please click here and navigate to the Community Events page.

From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas vicnelsaATearthlink.net
Comments? Letters@CoolCleveland.com

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