‘Cinderella’ Coming to Broadway with Mark Brokaw Directing

The first-ever Broadway production of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” is set to premiere during the 2012-2013 season, and will be directed by Mark Brokaw. The new version will feature an adaptation of the script by Douglas Carter Beane, and will be a reunion of sorts for Brokaw and Beane. The two first worked together on Beane’s “As Bees in Honey Drown,” which earned Beane an Outer Critics Circle Award. Brokaw directed the 1997-1998 off-Broadway run of the play. Brokaw also is known as the director of Paul Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive,” and Beane’s other writing credits include “Sister Act,” “Lysistrada Jones,” “The Little Dog Laughed” and “Xanadu.”

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” originally was written for a television special that aired in 1957 and starred Julie Andrews. The cast performed the show live for the broadcast. The book for the original production was written by Hammerstein and based primarily on a French version of the classic fairy tale. Two other television productions of the musical have been produced since that time – one in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren, and one in 1997 starring pop singer Brandy.

Stage versions of the musical first appeared in London in 1958 and have been performed around the world since that time, but so far had never come to Broadway. According to production notes, the new version will update the story:

Mr. Beane’s new book…re-invents the classic tale of a maid-turned-princess with fresh comedy, wit and satire: with pumpkin, glass slippers, Fairy Godmother and other story elements intact, it is now Cinderella’s turn to rescue the Prince, reminding us once again that in a cruel world the act that matters most is kindness.”

In addition to the songs from the original production, other songs from the Rodgers & Hammerstein cannon also will be added, according to the production notes.