Music, magic and slippers

QUINCY — One of the most iconic stories of our culture will take the stage Feb. 28, as Quincy High School theater group presents “Cinderella.” It’s the classic tale of a girl who languishes under the cruel eye of her stepmother, bullied by her stepsisters until her fairy godmother comes along and outfits her for the prince’s ball.

It’s a far cry from the 1950 animated Disney film, however. This version was created for Broadway and is based largely on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical from 1957, but it’s not exactly that either. 

“I would say it’s Rodgers and Hammerstein-esque,” said Musical Director Kylie Youngren. “There’s some original material, like (the songs) ‘Stepsisters; Lament” and ‘Ten Minutes Ago.’” 

The kernel of the story is still the same. Ella (Sophie Hart), orphaned and living like a servant in the house that was her father’s, learns that Prince Topher (Owen Yeates) has decided to take a wife and will hold a massive ball to select one. But Topher is more than just a Prince Charming. His parents, too, are dead and he’s running the kingdom under the influence of Lord Chancellor Sebastian, who doesn’t always have the people’s best interest at heart. Sebastian is in cahoots with Ella’s stepmother to select one of the stepsisters for the prince, but the stepsister has her eye on a political firebrand named Jean Michel. 

Putting on any Rodgers and Hammerstein play makes for big shoes to fill, but this one is an additional challenge because almost all the cast is inexperienced, including the leads; Yeates is a sophomore and Hart is a freshman. Quincy graduated 17 seniors from last year’s drama program, Director Haliey Weber said. 

“So we’re pretty much restarting this year,” she said. “It’s been really fun to have a new crop of students.” 

Because this is Weber’s fifth year teaching at Quincy, the students who graduated were her first cohort, she said.  

The acting and the music are the first challenges that most people think of, but the technicalities are tricky too. Cinderella’s ragged old dress has to transform magically into a beautiful ball gown, and a pumpkin has to turn into a carriage — and back again — with mice serving as footmen. Fortunately, a couple of very skilled parents stepped up to do the costumes and the school’s advanced construction class made some of the set. The stage crew students do all the technical work themselves: lights, furniture, buildings and yes, a carriage. 

“Sometimes we watch a professional performance of (a play) and we’re like ‘So this is what they use,’” said Stage Manager Odessa Lybbert.  

The crew also shamelessly recycles props, Lybbert said; the prince’s throne for “Cinderella” was previously a torture chair in “The Addams Family.’” 

“That's another area where we lost a lot of strong leaders and strong seniors,” Weber said. “It is like a whole new crop of kids stepping up and teaching others.” 

The music will be supplied by a community orchestra, Youngren said. 

“I feel like every musical kind of has its own arc,” she said. “You feel like you know the show but then … this is the Broadway version, and so it's really big singing, and really big harmony. “But (the kids) always rise to the challenge and take on the task of bringing the story to life through song.” 

    Jerrod Miller paints the pumpkin-turned-carriage for the Quincy High School presentation of “Cinderella.” The students decided to make it blue so as to distance it from its former pumpkin-y color.
  

    Odessa Lybbert shows the set of the house the crew made for the Quincy High School production of “Cinderella.”
  

    Freshman Sophie Hart rehearses a solo from her part in the Quincy High School production of “Cinderella,” opening Feb. 28.