Linedy Genao headlines Bad Cinderella. (Evan Zimmerman)

 

 

Bad Cinderella

By Fern Siegel

 

“I can’t lose my head! Where would all my hats go?” asks the distraught Queen of Belleville. She’s worried that rebellion is in the air. The often cheeky royal (Grace McLean) has no need to fret. Her kingdom, headquartered in the French town of Belleville, worships beauty. “Wrinkles are not tolerated, torsos must be tanned,” townsfolk decree.

 

Only one rebel, Cinderella (Linedy Genao), who scrawled “Beauty Sucks” on the statue of Prince Charming, has any spunk.

 

But Cinderella, the star of the colorful, often over-the-top Bad Cinderella, now playing at Broadway’s Imperial Theater, isn’t “bad” in the conventional sense. She’s an outspoken young woman trapped in a dysfunctional family populated by a mean stepmother (Carolee Carmello) and stepsisters who turned her into their drudge.

 

Where the fairy tale diverges — and it hews closely to the original — is giving the story an occasional twist. It’s also a sassy realist about the power dynamics behind royal marriages.

 

Cinderella and Sebastian, Prince Charming’s younger, shyer brother (Julio Rey, who seamlessly filled in for Justin Dobson) have been childhood best friends. Since Charming is MIA, the Queen decides a wedding will rally her subjects. Sebastian is less than enthused, being as opposed to mindless vanity as his BFF. That the duo discover they are in love is inevitable. “Only You, Lonely You,” expresses Sebastian’s longings, while “I Know I Have a Heart (Because You Broke it)” is Cinderella’s.

 

But to augment their emotional journey, we get various numbers with a group of stunningly built, leather-clad men, known as the Hunks, who give new meaning to eye candy. When Charming (Cameron Loyal) finally appears, the testosterone shifts into overdrive, which makes his plot line predictably woke but a crowd-pleaser.

 

 

The Queen (Grace McLean) surrounded by the Hunks. (Evan Zimmerman)

 

The big question is: Who is the show targeting? It seems best suited for late-teen girls who will love JoAnn M. Hunter’s stylized choreography, which kicks off with “Buns ‘n’ Roses/Beauty is Our Duty,” and Gabriela Tylesova’s bright costumes.

 

“Bad” does play with familiar tropes, and Cinderella’s refusal to be judged by looks alone is feminist. (Still, she carries off her rags and leather jacket with swagger.) Above all, she wants to be loved for herself — though dreams of being hot. (Who doesn’t?) The catch: Genao is already beautiful. Cinderella asks for a sexy transformation to rival the women of Belleville, which the Fairy Godmother (Christina Acosta Robinson) performs. The “Beauty has a Price” number makes a fair point — but for this Cinderella, the plastic-surgery motif is replaced by a simple wig.

 

The music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber, justly famed for his lovely, lilting ballads, and lyrics by David Zippel. Vanity, self-interest and social climbing is noted and sent up in Emerald Fennel’s book. One of the show’s best numbers, “I Know You,” is sung by the Queen and the Stepmother. The latter wants one of her daughters (Sami Gayle and Morgan Higgins) to marry Sebastian, and she’s not above blackmailing the Queen to realize her dream.

 

In fact, some of the best moments on stage are watching Carmello and McLean. Their tart deliveries, especially Carmello’s, are loads of fun.

 

Bad Cinderella can’t escape it origins, which was a female rescue fantasy, augmented by a peculiar glass slipper obsession. Does love matter? Of course. But that lesson is hard fought in tales in which looks usually triumph. Ironically, Prince Charming’s physicality seems to be his claim to fame, a masculinity born solely of musculature.

 

Genao has to carry the show, and she does. Her voice and demeanor, deliver, as does the rest of the troupe. There are no dramatic lessons here. No real social commentary or deep dives into the twisted ethos of fairy tales. (It’s not Into the Woods.) Bad Cinderella is all breezy surface, but its palette is a visual treat.

 

Bad Cinderella

Imperial Theater, 249 W. 45 St.

Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes