`I cannot speak for any of the previous versions,” says Eartha Kitt over the telephone from Florida, in a resonant tone of voice that is far removed from her celebrated purr. “But our production carries an important moral lesson. We have things to say to children.”
You might expect, perhaps, that a veteran performer like Kitt would consider a role like the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” (which opens on Tuesday at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre) to be a rather campy assignment. Kitt, after all, is usually more associated with sultry cabaret songs than with family musicals.
Her albums have titles like “Bad But Beautiful” and “I Love Men.” Her first memoir was called “A Tart is Not Sweet: Alone With Me.” And because she did so much to further the image of woman as sensual feline, she quite reasonably titled her second autobiography “Confessions of a Sex Kitten.” For more than 40 years, Kitt has been regarded as the epitome of sophisticated aloofness — Orson Welles once called her “the most exciting woman in the world.”
Even though she is now 73, Kitt’s name still conjures images of nightclubs and martinis. Still, a couple of years ago at the Rosemont Theatre, a cackling Kitt could be seen flying on a broomstick as The Wicked Witch of the West in a huge touring production of “The Wizard of Oz” that also starred Mickey Rooney.
“I had a great time doing that,” Kitt says. “But this is much deeper.”
Kitt, who was born on a cotton farm in North Carolina and named “Eartha” because that year’s harvest did better than expected, has always been considerably more complex than her image. Criticized by some when she voiced her opposition to the Vietnam War in front of Lady Bird Johnson, Kitt was once investigated by the FBI and the CIA and worked mainly in Europe for most of the 1970s. When she was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in a 1978 Broadway show called “Timbuktu,” it marked her first major American performance in more than a decade.
The last time Chicago audiences saw Kitt perform live (aside from that witch turn) was in 1996 in a one-woman project at the Athenaeum Theatre called “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” based on the final performance of Billie Holiday, one of the performer’s great heroines. Kitt says she remembers that show with great fondness.
“Chicago was the only place where we did that piece,” she said. “It wasn’t completely ready. But people have received me in Chicago with great warmth over the years. I’ve worked there many, many times.”
When the decision was made to tour “Cinderella” this winter, some presenters around the country were nervous about the show. While the title may be familiar — and there are no more bankable names in musical theater than Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein the show’s numbers are not nearly as familiar as those from, say, “Oklahoma” or “Carousel.” Even with a cast that that includes Kitt as the Fairy Godmother and Deborah Gibson (formerly known as Debbie Gibson) as the eponymous tyrannized princess, “Cinderella” is a riskier commercial endeavor than you may think.
That is mainly because “Cinderella” was first created for television. After the NBC-TV network scored a big hit with its broadcast of “Peter Pan,” CBS decided to approach the great Broadway duo and ask them to write what would be the first-ever musical penned for prime-time television. They obliged in 1957 with “Cinderella,” seen first with Julie Andrews and John Cypher in the leads.
Another version of the show followed in 1965, with Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon, but it then dropped out of sight for several years.
In 1997, a new television production of “Cinderella” starring Whitney Houston and Brandy Norwood revived interest in the work. This updated “Cinderella” created enough of a buzz to suggest that a live production might attract large audiences.
Gabriel Barre’s new production opened in Tampa on Nov. 28 and is now in the middle of a national tour that may or may not end up in New York. Either way, the Florida reviews have, in general, been very good. And the original show has not been tampered with unduly.
“The Rodgers and Hammerstein estate,” says Kitt, “are very concerned that I sing precisely the right lyrics.”
Talk to Kitt about this project and you quickly sense that Broadway prospects are secondary to her desire to attach her famous name to projects that she feels have a clear moral compass. Rather than vamp her way around the country playing an evil witch, here she gets to tell a poor servant girl — and, by extension, anyone in the audience who feels like an outsider — that, yes, the spiritually worthy can go to the ball and bowl over the host.
“I care about this show and what it has to say,” notes a woman who has been invited to so many parties over the years that she must have lost count. “And children are listening to us.”
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The Eclipse Theatre has selected the playwright Romulus Linney as the subject of its 2001 season. This revived little theater company had an exceptionally successful 2000 season presenting the works of Lillian Hellman, which suggests that its new policy of devoting the whole year to plays by a single author was a smart idea. Beginning this spring, Eclipse will devote its endeavors to such Linney works as “A Woman Without a Name,” “Child Byron” and “Two.”
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If you are a die-hard fan of the Royal Shakespeare Company, you may be interested to know that the troupe is making a rare Midwestern visit to Ann Arbor, Mich., in March. The British troupe will be performing all three parts of “Henry VI” followed by “Richard III,” offering a very rare chance to see the whole sweep of a cycle. The engagement at the University of Michigan (the only U.S. stand) predates the London showing of Michael Boyd’s new productions. And if you go for the weekend of either March 10 or 17, it will be possible to see the troupe of 33 actors do all four plays within a mere 36 hours.
