I’m a huge fan of musicals, and though I’ve watched and loved Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Into the Woods, Mamma Mia and Moulin Rouge, I only saw them on video or in moviehouses. Thus, I had every reason to be excited last Saturday as I got all dressed up to watch Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella musical at the Esplanade theater.
very own Lea Salonga, that is why we purchased those tickets a month ago. Aside from the musical, though, we had another celebration for her – a picnic lunch in the park. She invited the few Pinoy friends she has in Singapore and everyone enjoyed the food, view, pictorials, and “presentations.” See, Cate, Rodel, Tyne and I had a gift for our shoeholic friend – a pair of white sandals, and we did not give them to her the way most people would have, that is, wrapped with pretty paper and handed over with a card. No siree. I came up with a presentation related to the play we were watching that night, and thus, “Cindergella” was staged on those fair park grounds after lunch. Joey acted as the prince holding a slipper in his hand, looking for the maiden whose foot would fit it. Evil stepsisters Tyne and I tried it on but it was too small or too big for us, and when the prince implored if there was no one else, our mother Cate said there was only the maid Cindergella left. So Prince Joey tried it on her foot and it fit perfectly. And now that he had found her, what was next, then? He whipped out a real diamond ring, knelt down, and asked her to marry her. Again. This was exactly how I pictured it last December, less the bloopers, which I realize, is part and parcel of anything real and not in the movies. And now, Joey and Gelle will be telling the tale of the two rings* for years to come.
We arrived at Esplanade 15 minutes before the show would start. We eventually found the 
correct entrance and got ushered to our seats. My acrophobia kicked in while I shimmied into my seat and looked at the miles of open space from my place to the stage. My amazement at the whole wow-so-this -is-what-the-inside-of-a-real-opera-house- looks-like experience distracted me from the fear, though. We even took a few pics before we got reprimanded because it was apparently not allowed. Whoopsies. By the time Lea came onstage, I was regretting buying these tickets… not because the musical wasn’t great, but because our tickets, second to the cheapest ones available, placed us way up high, far away from the stage that even my perfect 20-20 vision had a hard time making out the expressions of the characters onstage.
Still, we enjoyed the great music and funny twist on the fairy tale. I liked that they changed the 
slipper-fitting scene, in that instead of having Cinderella at home with her evil stepfamily, she had gone back to the palace gardens to reminisce, where she was chanced upon by the heartbroken prince, who had just been told by his father’s “secret service” that the lovely mysterious woman who had made him a changed man since last night could not be found. Of course he didn’t recognize her, but he kept stopping her from leaving because she looked familiar and he didn’t know why he couldn’t let her go. In the end, before she was set to finally leave, her fairy godmother freezes them, tells the audience, “Some people can be so dumb!” then plants the slipper that the prince had thrown away earlier back at his side, then turns Cinderella around so that when the scene unfreezes, she walks right back to the prince. The prince then sees the slipper, tries it on her, and realizes who she is, singing, “I have found you!”
I also liked the song that the prince sang to Cinderella as they danced: “Do I love you because you’re beautiful or are you beautiful because I love you? Do I want you because you’re wonderful or are you wonderful because I want you?”
And of course, no romantic comedy, musical or otherwise, won’t have lines that I can relate to. For this one, it was this opening song from Cinderella:
The sweetest sounds I’ll ever hear are still inside my head
The kindest words I’ll ever know are waiting to be said
The most entrancing sight of all is yet for me to see
And the dearest love in all the world is waiting somewhere for me
So yes, even though it probably wasn’t as great the all-time greats (Phantom would still be my all-time fave and someday I swear I will watch it live in a real opera house), I had a ball in the Cinderella musical and I loved it because it was wonderful… or was it wonderful because I loved it? ^^
*Read about the tale of the first ring here