By Steven Suskin
28 Dec 2003
It is somewhat difficult to describe Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin's four character musical Cindy-Ella, or I Gotta Shoe. The authors call it "the Cinderella story told as a Mammy might tell the tale of Cindy-Ella to her little girl in a tenement yard in New Orleans," to which I'll add only that it is funneled through a British sensibility.
Originally performed as a Christmas play for the BBC in 1957, Cindy Ella became a novel (with illustrations by Tony Walton). Excerpts from the book were televised, with Cleo Laine and Elisabeth Welch doing the honors. This, in turn, was almost immediately transformed into a Christmas musical. Cindy-Ella opened at the Garrick on December 17, 1962, with Laine and Welch joined by Cy Grant and George Browne (and Walton providing rear projection slides).
Brahms and Sherrin wrote the script and lyrics, most of which were adapted from what the liner notes describe as "Negro music." The music is mostly traditional, with a pair of songs from musical director Peter Knight and another two from Ron Grainer (who wrote the richly romantic Robert and Elizabeth two years later). One of the new songs, "Look on Me with a Loving Eye" (Grainer-Brahms/Sherrin), is especially lovely. The uncredited musical arrangements are very good indeed, making for a delightful, unusual and intimate score with a jazzy touch.
Fanciful is the best way to describe it, I suppose. The Prince "looks just like Johnny Mathis, only with a deeper voice." And when Cindy flees the ball, she doesn't just run down the stairs. "She's running through the anteroom," we are told, and "the anteroom's connected to the rainbow room, the rainbow room's connected to the crystal room, the crystal room's connected to the hibiscus room, the hibiscus room's connected to the seven stars room and the billiard room. Plenty good rooms in that palace." This sort of cockeyed treatment might not appeal to all listeners. I find the combination of material, treatment and performance ingratiatingly droll; how it worked on stage, in 1962, I can only imagine.
Cindy-Ella is comparable, I suppose, to Once On this Island, Simply Heavenly, and perhaps The Robber Bridegroom. While I generally prefer musicals to have original scores, Cindy-Ella — thanks in good part to Cleo and Elisabeth — comes across as magical. Listen to those girls "Raise a Ruckus" or explain that "You Gotta Look Disdainful." All in all, a charming surprise.
— Steven Suskin, author of the "Broadway Yearbook" series, "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by E-mail at Ssuskin@aol.com(mailto:Ssuskin@aol.com)
