Playwright: book by Jackie Taylor, music and lyrics by Michael Ward, Jackie Taylor and Herman Wheatley. At: Black Ensemble Theatre, 4450 N. Clark St. Tickets: 773-769-4451; www.blackensembletheater.org; $55-$65. Runs through: Jan. 13
If the new Black Ensemble playhouse at Clark and Sunnyside is the house that Jackie Taylor built, its cornerstone was the smart, hip, home-grown 1976 adaptation of Charles Perrault's classic poor-girl-makes-good fable. You won't find any blonde babes, Ken-doll princes or cuddly rodents in this version, however: in the kingdom of "Other," our heroine lives in the projects with her domineering stepmother and preening stepsisters. Forced by her exploitive foster family to drop out of school, Cinderella has come to accept their low-potential assessment of her.
The royal family has its problems, too. The king and queen worry over their son's attachment to his boyhood friendwho's gay. A pair of servants attracted to one another suffer insecurities over the discrepancies in their skin pigmentation. The latest addition to the palace staff, a boy from the 'hood, confronts hostility from his former peers. When the King proposes a party at the monarchic mansion, where the bachelor prince may find a bride among the eligible women invited, it takes the intervention of a Jamaican Fairygodmama to supply courage, confidence and proper presentation to our Cindy, whose incognito appearance at the posh gala sets the plot in motion.
You'd never guess this material's age seeing the production making its debut in sumptuous new quarters, replete with turntable platforms, video projections, flying equipment, shimmery costumes, and a sound system every theater in town should hope Santa brings them. The score by Michael Ward, Herman Wheatley and Taylor herself might include a few songs recalling '70s luminaries (Gladys Knight, the Fifth Dimension), but the "hoodies" contribute plenty of hip-hop action, thanks to Rueben Echoles' intricate, down-front dance choreography. The cast is anchored by such BET regulars as Rhonda Preston, Dwight Neal, Dawn Bless and David Simmons, along with recent discoveries like Lisa Beasley, Raymond Wise, Ta-Tynisa Wilson and A'rese Emokpae, playing the irrepressible Fairygodmama whose signature song "You Make The Wish" we will be humming for weeks afterward.
Diversity, tolerance, self-empowerment, upward mobility and independence are among the themes addressed in Taylor's constantly-evolving text (the potential sexism of the original story's resolution is dismissed without skipping a beat). "All are welcome" declares the Kingeven an immigrant from Kansas named Dorothy, played by Erin O'Shea, is granted citizenship after passing the appropriate testsand that means you, too.