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“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” Dazzles Audiences With Spectacular Performances
Cinderella
Prince

“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” dazzled audiences last weekend at King’s Performing Arts Center. Students wrapped in colorful costumes sang witty show tunes with a modern message that transformed the centuries-old tale. In this adaptation of the classic, Cinderella is empowered by the virtue of kindness. 

“This version of Cinderella has a lot more layers than the Disney one that people usually know,” said Isabella Kolenberg ’25, who played the lead role in one of two productions and created the artwork for the show’s promotional materials. “While she wants to go to the ball, she also wants to make the world a better place and spread kindness everywhere she goes.” 

Mari Pritchard ’26, a featured ballet dancer and member of the ensemble, agreed. “Cinderella is more than just a pretty thing on the prince's arm,” said Mari. “She has goals and realizes that she can change the world one person at a time. That is the central shift that happens at the ball.”

In true King fashion, members of the cast took the time to thoroughly research and understand the characters before bringing them to the stage.

Sisters

“I prepared for this role by learning to ballroom dance from online tutorials and classes,”  explained Zachary Louizos ’25, who played the role of Prince Topher. “I watched various productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and studied the character traits of Prince Topher in order to learn how to accurately portray the character.”

The show was double cast, which allowed students a chance to play various parts and practice shifting perspectives. These shared roles helped solidify the theme of kindness, which the students first identified during table reads early in the rehearsal process. 

“You can see how appreciative of her kindness the people are and how that then influences the prince to change,” said Hathaway Liparidis ’26, who played Cinderella’s stepsister Charlotte.

Dancing

Performing Arts teacher and the show's director Mark Silence selected this particular version of Cinderella intentionally. Rodgers and Hammerstein infused the fairytale with the theme of empowerment and kindness, and Silence saw its potential to serve as a teaching tool for developing skills that put the virtue into practice.

“Virtues are not something we simply possess, but something we strive for,” Silence said. “Like all of King’s virtues, kindness is an objective to constantly pursue.”

Making this production particularly special was the addition of two Project Music students and three Project Music teachers, who joined six King students and Director of Performing Arts Garrett Mendez to play live music in the pit. Performing Arts teacher Stephanie Gregory served as the show’s musical director. 

Silence attributes the show’s success to the work students did on and off the stage. The script presented students with vocal and storytelling challenges, which they overcame with perseverance, another King School virtue.

“It felt great being able to put all of my hard work to use for such a successful performance,” said Zachary Louizos ’25. “I was able to learn how to make my castmates feel better when times were tough. I made new castmates feel welcomed and supported their growth the way older castmates did with me when I was a freshman,” he added.

Speech

The King School production was accepted by the American High School Theater Festival for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and will travel to Scotland this summer with eleven of the original cast members. This will be the third time King has produced a show for the festival. Rehearsal for that production will begin after Spring Break.

“Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella” is a musical written for television in the 1950s and later adapted for the stage, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.