Theatre: Cinderella the Wizard

Date saw the show: August 14 2007
Place saw the show: Alberta, Calgary, Calgary Fringe Festival (www.calgaryfringe.ca)
Director: Pam Schmunk

Promise Productions

3 stars

Reviewed By: Emily Axelson

Long ago, there was a kingdom called magical kingdom. It was inhabited by kings, queens, and wizards. Then, tourists began visiting magical kingdom, and before no time, people were moving there. Eventually, the wizards vanished, the kings and queens became the mayor, and the magic brooms became cars. The only magic left was in a baby girl named Cinderella. Her mother was killed in a very “mysterious” accident (car crash), and her father re-married an awful woman. Cinderella was forced to work in the local shoe shop, and wait on her stepmother and stepsisters day and night. Since she was only a half wizard, she wouldn’t have full magical powers until her twenty first birthday; but there’s a catch, she has to kiss her true love before that night. Cinderella is not yet aware of her magical gift at this time, but she would soon find out.

As a typical modern day fairytale, Cinderella the wizard didn’t really have anything original to offer. There have been so many modernized stories lately; they all seem to be exactly the same. I went into this show suspecting that it would be a repeat, but I gave it a chance anyway. It wasn’t a bad production, it had its moments, but being so familiar, they weren’t laugh-out-loud funny. For the most part, the acting was decent. Not phenomenal, but they had potential. Cinderella was by far the best actress of the show.

Something Cinderella The Wizard did which really added fun into the show was audience participation, like pantomime. When the “prince” (or in this case, bachelor) was trying to find the owner of the shoe, he went to people in the audience to see if the shoe fit; adding some excitement. The jokes were still funny, just very overused already. To me this play was just another modern remake of that Cinderella fairytale.