Review
A Kiss for Cinderella
By Robert Gross

On a recent visit to Cleveland, I was intrigued to learn that the Cleveland Playhouse [www.clevelandplayhouse.org] was presenting a revival of J. M. Barrie's largely forgotten 1916 romance, A KISS FOR CINDERELLA. (Although I was aware that this was a rare opportunity, I didn't know at the time quite how rare--a recent reference book informs me that the last noteworthy production was in 1948!) once again falling prey to my passion for obscure old dramas, I resolved to see it--and was rewarded with a memorable evening of comic inventiveness and delicate charm.

Barrie's characteristic blend of whimsey, sentimentality and morbidity is remote to contemporary American sensibilities. This play, which hinges on the obsession of a poor and sickly young woman that she is in fact Cinderella, and who hallucinates the fairy tale ball as she lies unconscious in the street might well appear to lie beyond the pale for successful revival these days. But director Peter Hackett wisely played the disease and death with a light touch, and Michi Barall's spritely portrayal of Cinderella stressed spunk and innocent delight over the more desperate aspects of her character. Indeed, while I would someday like to see a production that probed the more disturbed (and disturbing) aspects of this script someday, this conservative production did an impressive job of restoring this lost work to a general audience with great freshness and charm. Rarely have I seen such innocence portrayed onstage without cliche or cloying sentimentality.

All of the cast is to be applauded, but I would be seriously remiss if I did not mention--Daniel Blinkoff's affectingly straightforward Policeman, a common man at first glance, destined to be a supporting player, who is transfomred into a Prince Charming both romantic and down-to-earth--Everett Quinton's Mr. Bodie, who communicated whimsey without archness, and whose dancing Penguin was a delight to behold--and John O'Callaghan's Danny Dugan, who somehow communicated both the scars of the class and wartime experience without rupturing the overall congeniality of the evening. All in all, a delight.