Ear-worms from Ashland

Way back when I was just a child and TVs were black and white,  the TV networks ran a musical version of Cinderella, starring Lesley Ann Warren.   I remember watching it, and my nascent feminist was nauseated by the scene where she dips up water for the Prince, gazing raptly upward with big eyes, as she served her man.  Nowhere does this show up in Grimm, but there are some biblical overtones of Eliezer and Rebekah.  It seems that wife hunters need to haunt wells....but I digress.

That scene was thankfully absent this past weekend when Ashland served up a demented version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, performed simultaneously with Euripedes' Medea and Shakespeare's MacBeth.  D bailed 15 minutes in, during "The Prince is Giving a Ball."  I stuck it out, because I wanted to see what in bloody hell they were trying to prove.

Not being ADD, I found the effort of following 3 plotlines enervating.  I really wanted to focus on the Medea plot line, which I knew the least.  The chorus and various characters wore masks, in homage to traditional Greek theatre, and it really worked.  Actually, the acting in all three cases was superb, and the Medea chorus sang some lovely songs, but the interpolation of Cinderella really distracted from the tragedies, and it was difficult to make any connection amongst the plot lines.   They didn't really share themes, other than those of ambition, betrayal, and vicious parenting.  I did like how the proximity to Medea and, to a lesser extent, MacBeth, darkened the Cinderella plot.  You could really see where the fairy tale might take her, and they underlined the point by having Medea don Cinderella's kerchief and apron.  Yeah, sweetie, the prince and Jason are brothers in arms....just wait until you've lived with him awhile.

Eventually, the actors started sharing props and language, merging into each other, until finally all costumes were subsumed in an all-black rehearsal outfit, and the actors from all the plotlines merged, with royalty on the top floor, main characters on the 2nd, and chorus on the bottom.   Applause followed, some standing, but most of us were scratching our heads.

Despite my irritation with the seemingly gratuitous Playx3 device, I found enough interest and enjoyment to make it worth my time.  However, I will not forgive them for the ear-worms I took away with me.  I spent all day yesterday humming "Why would a fellow want a girl like her"  It was almost as monotonous as, "this is the song that never ends...."

heh heh heh