The Ukiah Daily Journal

New musical ‘Cinderella’ is dressed for success

- By Mark Meszoros mmeszoros@news-herald.com @Markmeszor­os on Twitter

This isn’t “Rodgers and Hammerstei­n’s Cinderella.”

It isn’t even Disney’s “Cinderella.”

No, the newest musical take on the beloved, centuries-old folk tale — a Sony Pictures production debuting on Amazon’s Prime Video platform this week — is the “Cinderella” for the “Pitch Perfect” set.

That’s an obvious conclusion considerin­g that this “Cinderella” is written and directed by Kay Cannon, the writer and later director of the “Pitch Perfect” movies. It may stem from a brainstorm session by actor and talk host James Corden — who is a producer on the film and voices a mouse character who briefly becomes a human — but it has Cannon’s fingerprin­ts all overit.

Cannon is far from the sole reason “Cinderella” succeeds — wildly, we might add — but she is a big one. Powered by excellent performanc­es, plenty of humor, contempora­ry themes and catchy musical numbers consisting mainly of covers but also a couple of original songs, her “Cinderella” is infectious from its first few minutes and entertaini­ng throughout its nearly twohour run.

We shouldn’t go one more sentence without acknowledg­ing the engaging, endearing and earpleasin­g performanc­e by Cuban-born pop singer Camila Cabello in what is, more or less, the movie’s titular role.

We say “more or less” because although Cabella’s character is named Ella, she’s referred to as “Cinderella” by her rather daft stepsister­s, Narissa (Charlotte Spencer) and Malvolia (Maddie Baillio), and her intermitte­ntly evil stepmother, Vivian (Idina Menzel). (Due to Ella living in the dingy basement, her skin so often is “besmirched by cinders,”

as a bit of narration informs us.)

When she’s not serving tea to the women of the house with higher social standings than she possesses, she’s designing dresses in her subterrane­an space. Her dream is to sell the dresses she creates from her own shop — a dream unlikely to be realized because women are forbidden from owning businesses in the kingdom.

Speaking of the realm, it is ruled by King Rowan (Pierce Brosnan), who is eager to see his son, Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine), enter into a marriage that would help obtain even more power and territory for the family. Robert, who’s closer with his mother, Queen Beatrice (Minnie Driver), would prefer not to marry

for any reason other than love. Kids — what are you gonna do?

Rowan hasn’t been scoring points with his wife of late, and he all but ignores his daughter, Princess Gwen (Tallulah Greive), who walks around spouting thoughts about how to make the lives of his people better. However, the king does give his son a small window to find true love: After the prince becomes entranced by Ella she commits a faux pas at a public event, Robert convinces Rowan that the grand ball the latter wants to host for Robert should be open to all women, regardless of wealth and stature.

To ensure things go as he desires, Robert disguises himself as a commoner and looks for Ella in town to encourage her to attend. Upon finding her, he shares immediate chemistry with her. And when he takes an interest in her dress work, Ella becomes intrigued by the friendly stranger, who convinces her the ball would be an excellent venue for her to show off one of her creations.

When obstacles threaten to keep Ella from going to the affair, she gets some much-needed magical help from the Fab G (Billy Porter of “Pose”), a flashy fairy godmother of sorts. In an effort to save the day, he turns

mice to men and conjures a whimsical dress of her design, along with some gorgeous glass footwear.

“Anyway you can make them more comfortabl­e?” Ella asks Fab G.

“No,” he says.

“But you’re magic.” “Women’s shoes are as they are.”

This “Cinderella” is quite interested in providing an empowering message for women — essentiall­y, that they can do anything with their lives they so please. And because we know how important a career in dressmakin­g is to Ella, we suspect it won’t be quite as simple as she and Robert finding love and living happily ever after. That it’s easy to spot the route for that ultimate outcome doesn’t spoil any of the fun.

Somewhat relatedly … if we have a nit to pick, it’s that Gwen is relegated to being such a background player. In part because of the performanc­e by Greive (“Millie Inbetween”) but mainly because of the qualities written into the character, she deserves her own subplot.

That said, we can’t complain about all the time spent with Cabello’s Ella. The singer — whose past includes singing in the musical group Fifth Harmony, formed on talent show “The X Factor” — appears to have a future on the screen if she wantsit.

And although he doesn’t move the needle all that much, Galitzine (“The Beat Beneath My Feet,” “Chambers”) helps to convinces us Robert is worthy of our fine young woman.

Truthfully, all the notable players, from Menzel (“Rent,” “Frozen”) to Brosnan (“Mamma Mia!,” “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”) contribute something worthwhile.

As for the music, it’s a big part of the fun. And while the original songs — Cabello ballad “Million to One” and Menzel’s “Dream Girl,” which helps to flesh out her character — play their part, it’s more the clever treatments of covers that help to elevate “Cinderella.” The company’s opening fusion of Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and Desirée’s “You Gotta Be,” the Menzel-led rendition of Madonna’s “Material Girl” and, especially, Galitzine’s choir-backed celebratio­n of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” are high points.

Not quite pitch-perfect, this fresh spin on “Cinderella” casts quite a spell.

“Cinderella” is rated PG for suggestive material and language. Runtime: 1

hour, 53 minutes.

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 ?? AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES — KERRY BROYN PHOTO ?? Camila Cabello and Nicholas Galitzine star in “Cinderella.”
AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES — KERRY BROYN PHOTO Camila Cabello and Nicholas Galitzine star in “Cinderella.”

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