‘Cinderella’ an updated fairy-tale soap, with rap & fab gowns
The “Hamilton”-ization of the American musical continues with this new, pleasant, if also lightweight “Cinderella” starring Cuba-born pop singer Camila Cabello, making her acting debut in the title role, and London-born Nicholas Galitzine (“The Craft: Legacy”) as her tall and handsome prince.
However you try to update it, “Cinderella” is going to thwart feminist standards because it is the story of an oppressed woman who rises in status by marrying royalty. Writer-director Kay Cannon of the wan Leslie Mann-John Cena comedy “Blockers” does what she can to make this a “Cinderella” for our times and making Cinderella a woman striving for independence.
But there is no getting around the glorious Prince Harry-Meghan Markle of it all. Between watching the “Megxit” drama unwinding and bingeing on “The Crown,” the world remains obsessed with royalty and its deluxe trappings.
This “Cinderella,” following hard on the heels of the 2015 live-action Disney “Cinderella” with Lily James, is a cartoon-ish musical with a mix of a few new songs, big production numbers and several rock and pop standards, Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and the Madonna hit “Material Girl,” for example.
Cinderella, actually Ella, lives in the basement of the lavish house of her cruel stepmother Vivian (Idina Menzel) and her stepsisters Drizella (Charlotte Spencer) and Anastasia (Maddie Baillio). Also in the basement are three talking mice, so one must be James Corden, also a producer of the film, and a caterpillar, which Ella rescues from a spider.
Cinderella (taking a cue from Disney’s Cruella?), longs to be a dressmaker and has dozens of sketches pinned to a wall and a table covered in fabrics. She has made a dress that she wants to sell in the market, an unheard of thing. She also wants her own shop, also unheard of for a woman. Instead, she toils as servant to her stepmother and stepsisters. She has also caught the eye of a local twit named Thomas (Rob Beckett).
Prince Robert, meanwhile, refuses to marry into another royal family and expand the kingdom of his aging, angry father King Rowan (an amusing Pierce Brosnan). The King and his Queen Beatrice (a radiant Minnie Driver) are on bad terms. The town crier (Doc Brown), a rapper with a band, keeps the citizens informed of current events. Truth be told Princess Gwen (Tallulah Greive) would make a more suitable monarch than her brother Robert.
As the world knows, Emmy Award-winner Billy Porter (“Pose”) plays the fairy godmother role in this woke production (actually “fabulous godmother” or Fab G), and Porter makes it work. But was it really necessary to make Queen Tatiana, a Black person, refer to herself as “a frickin’ Queen”? Porter’s Fab G turns the mice into footmen and a box into a coach and dresses Ella in a beautiful gown for the ball at which the prince is supposed to choose his mate.
Yes, the fairy tale interpreted by 17th century Frenchman Charles Perrault is stubbornly reactionary. But throw in some Beyonce, Salt-N-Pepa and White Stripes, and you make it fresh. The tale ends with the kingdom singing and dancing to “Let’s Get Loud” with its bland party-hard mandate. Cabello and Galitzine have a nice chemistry. But this “Cinderella” remains steadfastly not quite firstrate.
(“Cinderella” contains suggestive material and content.)