We want the kids who see it to recognize the story they know. Children can be very critical on that score. But, of course, their parents will be watching, too, so we have tried to humanize the characters without altering the familiar plot structure. As you may know, I'm not one for writing stories about poor little girls who suddenly win fame and happiness at the stroke of a magic wand. I think I helped explode the notion that success comes through luck in ME AND JULIET in which the stage-struck innocent never makes the grade in the theatre. So in CINDERELLA I have de-emphasized the 'fairy' aspect of the godmother, and have simply presented her as a matter-of-fact woman with a sense of humor who incidentally has magical powers. In her first scene with Cinderella she even tries to talk the girl out of her wild idea of going to the ball. But it's Cinderella's innocent faith in a miracle, which she expresses in the song 'Impossible,' that finally wins the godmother over to granting her wish.

Though a few of its songs have become popular, our score for CINDERELLA is another example of what theatre music is really all about. No matter what the medium, a score is more than a collection of individual songs. It is, or should be, a cohesive entity whose words and music are believable expressions of the characters singing them. When the lonely, bullied heroine sings, 'In My Own Little Corner,' it's not merely a song, it's a revelation of the girl herself. When she finishes, we know something more about her than we had before -- her sense of humor, her naive optimism, her imagination and her relationship to the rest of her family. It's fair to say that this song is familiar to a vast number of people, but it has never made anyone's hit parade and never will; it is simply part of the score. Like a symphony, concerto or opera, some portions have greater appeal than others, but it is the work as a whole that makes the overall impression.