THEATER REVIEW : S.D. Junior Theatre Gives ‘Cinderella’ the Fresh, Uncynical Touch It Merits

Poor Cinderella. She’s been plagued by more than evil stepsisters lately.

First, author Colette Dowling named the Cinderella complex after her, putting her down for giving up her cinder-sweeping career for the prince. Then Stephen Sondheim wrote “Into the Woods,” a musical that trashes her happily-ever-after ending, zooming in on divorce at the other end of the matrimonial rainbow.

So, where does that leave the poor benighted girl in the age of “Let’s get real?”

In the hands of the utterly uncynical San Diego Junior Theatre, the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein “Cinderella” musical emerges simply as this: a charming, unaffected and timeless tale of a nice girl and a nice boy, both lonely, who meet at a singles’ ball.

The sense of freshness is particularly remarkable when you consider that this is not only the first play the junior theater did at its inception 40 years ago, but it is being directed again, after 10 years, by Ole Kittleson, who started out with the junior theater as a child actor in 1948.

Because all the acting in the San Diego Junior Theatre is done by acting students who range in age from 8 to 18, finding actors with mature skills can be a problem.

Not to worry. Under Kittleson’s direction, Jennie Henderson glows with such sweet-voiced poise and charm as Cinderella that it comes as a shock to learn that this junior from Christian High School is a mere 16. Similarly, Jason Schauer creates a gentle, sensitive persona for the prince that leaves the audience rooting like matchmakers for the two to connect.

Henderson and Schauer even look right together. They fairly shimmer in the royal robes designed by Mibs Somerville as they parade along the magical stone castle background of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s “Yeomen of the Guard” set.

Designed by John Redman, the set was cleverly adapted by David Schrage to revolve in the inside of Cinderella’s cottage as well as depict both the inside and outside of the castle.

Henderson and Schauer both sing well too, which makes them stand out even further from the younger, shaky-voiced students in the ensemble.

The evil stepsisters, Becky Cherlin and Kylie Grant, show delightfully precocious comic flair as does Meghan Armstrong as the snippy stepmother. Cherlin and Grant are particularly memorable, grimacing indignantly in the “Stepsisters’ Lament,”:”Why does a fellow want a girl like her/A girl who’s merely lovely . . . ?”

Of course not all is wonderful, even in the world of fairy tales. Things do drag when the action moves to the regal carping at the castle, and fingers have a way of twiddling when a parade of kids silently carries food for the banquet from one end of the stage to the other over interminable minutes.

Vignettes like the parade, which advance the food at the expense of the plot, seem transparently designed to give kids without lines brief moments in the spotlight. That--sigh--may be one of those devices that never change in junior theater.

Performances at 7 p.m. Friday, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2, through May 8. At the Casa del Prado Theatre in Balboa Park, San Diego.