Glass Slipper? ✔
Pumpkin Carriage? ✔
Lousy step-family, prince and princess, big ol’ ball? ✔✔✔
But if you think you know the story of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, think again. To quote my 63-year-old mother (who at the time of this review, we’re now 12 hours post leaving the theatre and she’s still telling me things she discovered and was awestruck by and enjoyed), “that was the best,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And somewhere between days two and six he created Signature Theatre way down in Shirlington, Virginia. And now, after thousands of years of watching the world filled with stupid humans do their worst, the almighty has deigned us meager mortals worthy of a visit— inside the Ark Theatre (because even God isn’t big enough to beat out A Little Night Music starring Bobby Smith next door in The Max)— because he’s come to set the record straight.
And it came to pass that jazz was born at Signature Theatre when Jelly’s Last Jam kicked off the 2016/2017 season in the sweltering August heat! Step right into ‘The Jungle Inn’ where you’re jammin’ with Jelly tonight! There’s no doubt about this masterful musical— with book by George C. Wolfe, Music by Jelly Roll Morton, Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and Musical Adaptation & Additional Music composed by Luther Henderson— as it lays down the birth of jazz exactly like Jelly Roll Morton remembers it!