A dusty and somewhat raggedly dressed young woman, a pair of glass slippers, a coach that was once a pumpkin, a handsome prince and a climactic ball still figure into Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, onstage this weekend at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall.
The musical -- music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II -- took a "straight" shot at the fairy tale when it debuted on television in 1957, starring Julie Andrews in the title role; in a 1965 TV remake, with Lesley Ann Warren; and in a 1997 TV remake that starred Brandy as Cinderella and Whitney Houston as her Fairy Godmother.
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella
7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Robinson Center Performance Hall, West Markham Street and Broadway. Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Douglas Carter Beane based on Hammerstein’s original. Work Light Productions’ national tour; Celebrity Attractions is the presenter.
Tickets: $33-$73
Sponsor: United Capital Financial Advisers
(501) 244-8800
However, for the show's 2013 Broadway debut (nominated for nine 2013 Tony Awards and winning for William Ivey Long's costume design), Douglas Carter Beane's book re-created Ella in a contemporary figure, with the folks who become the familiar fairy-tale characters as fellow urbanites.
So, for example, the Fairy Godmother starts out as a neighbor named Crazy Marie.
Leslie Jackson, who plays the role in the touring production (here as part of Celebrity Attractions' 2016-2017 season), trained as an opera singer, but has found more success doing musical theater.
"I really like both," she says. "At this time, music theater is drawing my attention." And, of course, gets her more work. "That, too," she adds.
However, doing theater places a much bigger demand on a young singer than opera would. Jackson and her castmates usually do eight performances a week, and "we all do every show, unless we really need to call out for something."
Strange as it seems, she says, her toughest musical challenge is her ballad, "Music in You."
"That one's a little hard, because before I can do the song, I have a sudden little 'sprint' section, picking up stuff," she explains. Complicating things: "All of the fog and smoke effects. During 'tech' it took some getting used to, but I think I've gotten used to it by now.
"Doing music rehearsals, they wanted Marie, at least the Fairy Godmother version of Marie, to be on the 'legit' side, and this is Rodgers & Hammerstein, which is more 'classic' music theater anyway. So it's all in a really comfortable area.
"It's fun to listen to the contrast where I'm the crazy old woman -- she's a little more deep and belty and brash."
Jackson, a New Orleans native who was raised in Houston, began singing in her church's children's choir and her elementary school honor choir. She took voice lessons and took part in vocal competitions at the Houston Music Institute, which is where she also developed an interest in musical theater. She earned a bachelor of music in opera performance degree and a certificate in music theater at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago.
A 2013-2014 international tour of West Side Story (in which she was the understudy for Maria) took her to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London's West End, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Deutsches Theater in Munich and the Israeli Opera House in Tel Aviv. The national tour of Ragtime (she played Sarah) brought her in April to the Maumelle Performing Arts Center, also courtesy of Celebrity Attractions.
Jackson says she misses opera "a little bit," and she's trying to keep up with her classical and opera training. "But I think I'm having more fun sticking with theater," she adds.
Is there a role she's just itching to take on? "I'd love to get into Hamilton, like everybody else in the world."
Weekend on 01/12/2017