Article from NY DAILY NEWS http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/fanfare/saturday/nd9185.htm Thanks to Lisa for this information! 05/05/2001 - Saturday - Page B 7 The Slipper Doesn't Fit in This 'Cinderella' By Gordon Cox. Gordon Cox is a regular contributor to Newsday. THEATER REVIEW RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA. Music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, adapted for the stage by Tom Briggs, directed by Gabriel Barre. With Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Eartha Kitt, Paolo Montalban, Everett Quinton, NaTasha Yvette Williams, Alexandra Kolb. Musical supervision and arrangements by Andrew Lippa, choreography by Ken Roberson. The Theater at Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street. Seen Thursday. AFTER YOU'VE WADED through the poorly managed mob of little girls and their parents clogging the dishearteningly few doors to the Theater at Madison Square Garden, you may as well stop by the concession stand and pick up some popcorn, hot dogs or cotton candy. The feeling that you've stumbled into a theme park isn't going to go away when the curtain rises on "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella." This touring production, which opened in New York on Thursday and runs through May 13, has been designed with all the exaggerated whimsy of a ride at Disneyland. The show is brightly colored, bald-faced and sanitized enough to keep the kids harmlessly occupied for a couple of hours. For the rest of us, it's a big snooze. It's no help that the renowned composer-lyricist team of Rodgers and Hammerstein ("South Pacific," "The Sound of Music," and many more) have taken a well-worn fairy tale and dramatized it without a shred of imagination. In this musical originally written for television, all the familiar elements are in place- the evil stepmother, the overbearing stepsisters, the handsome prince, the helpful mice-but there still doesn't seem to be quite enough story to keep a full-length show going. A reprise of the love song "Ten Minutes Ago," which explains an event that happened 10 minutes earlier, is closely followed by "A Lovely Night," a song that rehashes the ballroom scene we just saw. The draw for adults here, if there is one, comes chiefly from Eartha Kitt. A Fairy Godmother in a slinky purple dress, she doesn't disappoint. Kitt vamps her way through the proceedings even if one of her songs does cause her to warble and chirp like a munchkin. Jamie-Lynn Sigler, better known as Meadow Soprano on "The Sopranos," makes an appealing and sweet-voiced Cinderella. As her Prince Charming, the appropriately earnest Paolo Montalban feels a little bland. But then, if his character had too much personality, he couldn't be the universal dream guy he's supposed to be. Playing the comically mismatched stepsisters, NaTasha Yvette Williams and Alexandra Kolb have a few enjoyably cartoonish moments. And Everett Quinton, formerly of New York's defunct Ridiculous Theatrical Co., makes drag safe for toddlers with his flapping caricature of Cinderella's stepmother. While its giant, storybook setpieces slide on and off, the production moves as smoothly as the glitzy well-oiled machine that it is. In a production like this, it's not a surprise that there's no subtlety to be had, but it's a shame that there's also no magic.