The prince is giving a ball. The prince is giving a ball!
Well, not really. Prince Christopher’s parents, the King (Bob Potts) and Queen (Elena DeSiervo-Burns), are giving the ball commanding all the maidens in the kingdom to attend to meet him in hopes that he will find a bride.
The prince (Eric Michael Byers) is not keen on the idea as he has just bumped into an enchanting young woman named Cinderella (Stephanie Colavito), who is mistreated by her Stepmother (AJ Mooney) and Stepsisters Joy (Piper Emmelia Burns) and Grace (Inanna Piccininni). Stepmother forbids Cinderella from attending the ball, but her Fairy Godmother (Bronwyn Reed) steps in and gets the young woman there in style and, well, you know the rest of the story.
Penobscot Theatre Company’s production of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s musical “Cinderella” is an enchanting spectacle at the Bangor Opera House. From the performances to the music to the sets to the puppets, it is as enchanting as Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” was in 2017 and “Mary Poppins” was in 2023.
“Cinderella” was written for a 1957 television broadcast on CBS starring Julie Andrews, who was fresh off a successful Broadway run in “My Fair Lady.” Television executives wanted to build on the successful broadcast two years earlier of the musical “Peter Pan,” starring Mary Martin.
It was reprised for television in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon, who went on to appear on the soap opera “General Hospital” for decades. Whitney Houston starred as the Fairy Godmother in a 1997 version for television and “Cinderella,” with a new book, played on Broadway in 2013.
Penobscot Theatre is using the 1997 script. Songs that will be familiar to parents and grandparents who remember those broadcasts include “The Sweetest Sounds,” “In My Own Little Corner” and “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful.”
Director Kathryn Markey, the artistic director of Opera House Arts in Stonington, knows how to create theater magic. She captures all the romance, humor and magic of this story and keeps the action moving in this two-hour, two-act show. This is Markey’s second show with PTC. She directed “Birthday Candles” last season.
Colavito and Byers, who both grew up in Greater Bangor but are now based in New York City, are charming as Cinderella and Prince Christopher. Colavito appeared in September in “Steel Magnolias” and “Mother Russia” in May at the Opera House while Byers was the nerdy Seymour in “Little Shop of Horrors” last season.
Both beautifully capture the yearning each character feels for a different sort of life and for love. Their voices meld together and they mine nuance in the songs. They are adorable.
Mooney, fondly remembered for her turn as a dancing lobster in “Trapped The Musical: A Lobster Tale” nearly three years ago and in “Birthday Candles” last season, is funny and feisty as Stepmother. She counters the woman’s mean streak with the flirty pursuit of the prince’s steward Lionel (Ethan Davenport), who wants nothing to do with this mama bear.
Three adults — Andrew Barrett, Thomas Demers and Rebekah Novak — are in the ensemble along with seven young actors — Stella Burns, Castine Carter-Kunz, Parker Dorr, Miles Green-Hamann, Kira Hendrickson, Maia Johnson and Nadia Rodriguez from the theater company’s Dramatic Academy program.
The adults portray townspeople and ballgoers while the children operate small mouse puppets, a cat puppet and wear handsome horse heads as they take Cinderella to the ball in her pumpkin coach. Gwen Elise Higgins designed the delightfully charming creatures.
Jess Ploszaj’s scenic design and SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal’s light and projection design complement each other perfectly. This show shimmers and sparkles from the opening scene to the curtain call. But it is Kevin Jacob Koski’s costumes that steal the show.
How he transformed Colavito from rags to a powder blue ball gown complete with “glass” slippers in seconds onstage in front of a gasping audience oohing and aahing at the magic of it all will be remembered by those who witnessed it for many years. It is a showstopping moment that is as magical as it is mysterious. Saturday night’s audience spent intermission wondering, “How did they do that?”
The band, led by Music Director Rob Laraway, is outstanding at capturing all the beauty of the score. It lifts up rather than overpowers the actors.
After two years of “A Christmas Carol” as its holiday show, Penobscot Theatre is to be applauded for bringing this charming and funny spectacle of a musical to the Bangor Opera House. Even Scrooge would be charmed by this “Cinderella.”
Penobscot Theatre Company’s “Cinderella” will be performed at the Bangor Opera House through Dec. 28. For more information, visit penobscotteatre.org or call 942-3333.
