This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Tatyana Lubov, who plays the lead role in the national tour of "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella," offers glass-slipper-sized advice for theatergoers: Don't look down at your program or you're likely to miss one of the show's lighting-quick transformations.
She learned that the hard way when she was watching the Broadway show starring Laura Osnes.
Now, the 23-year-old Wisconsin native — the daughter of a high-school music teacher and a composer/arranger — is following Osnes in the title role of everybody's favorite princess-to-be on the national tour.
She's wearing William Ivey Long's Tony Award-winning costumes, and it's her character who receives makeovers even as she's singing. "They're constructed so well," is all she will reveal about how those transformations are accomplished.
Lubov grew up singing. In college at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she overcame her fear of acting.
After graduation, she moved to New York City, and while subletting all over the city and juggling catering jobs, she showed up for an open-call audition for "Cinderella."
And in her own fairytale story, she was No. 412, so far back in the line she wasn't allowed to audition in person. Instead, she sent in a video.
Four callbacks later, she landed the part of Ella in a show that features those classic Rodgers and Hammerstein songs originally written for a 1957 live television musical showcasing Julie Andrews.
This musical version of the fairytale features a modern spin by playwright Douglas Carter Beane, while also nodding back to the source material, Charles Perrault's 17th-century folk tale.
Think less Disneyfied perfection, more contemporary attitude. Think character development, as well as Tony Award-winning ball gowns, and a pair of crystal-studded shoes that themselves spark "oohs" and "aahs" from audiences.
"This 'Cinderella' wants to be reassuringly old-fashioned and refreshingly irreverent, sentimental and snarky, sincere and ironic, all at once," Ben Brantley wrote in his own snarky 2013 New York Times review.
"We like to call it the classic 'Cinderella' tale that everyone knows and loves — with a modern twist," Lubov says. "There are scenes where Ella guides the Prince to figure out how to rule his kingdom. She is very driven in general, and no matter what happens, she keeps moving toward what she wants. She uses her imagination a lot in the show."
Her imagination, that is, as well as the magical skills of her Fairy Godmother.
"This is a Cinderella for now," says Joanna Johnson, the Utah-reared actor who plays stepsister Charlotte. "She's smart, she's capable, she's kind, and in some ways she saves the prince, not the other way around."
Johnson, 31, was the youngest in a Mormon family of eight kids in Grantsville, the daughter of the ward music director. Her parents performed in community theater productions and acted in locally based TV shows and films. "Everybody's musical," she says, "everybody's performed in some capacity."
Bill Green, her high-school drama teacher, called the Johnson siblings the "Barrymores of Grantsville."
At 5, she got her start as an actor playing LeeLee in a Hale Centre Theatre production of "Bundle of Trouble." "That was my first exposure to playing pretend for money, or as we called it, 'dress-up karaoke,' " she says.
After graduating from Utah State University in 2012, she performed in Pioneer Theatre Company's 2013 production of "Elf," and working at Tuacahn Amphitheatre, memorably played Sister Mary Patrick in the 2015 production of "Sister Act."
"Every job kind of leads to the next one," she says. "Working at Pioneer put Tuacahn on my radar, and I met friends there who talked me into moving to New York. Getting Tuacahn got me my agent, who has been so helpful."
In this version of the story, her stepsister character is "hilarious and weird. "She's fun and sort of dumb, sort of too self-absorbed to notice that bad things are happening around her," Johnson says. "I have so much fun playing her."
Lubov agrees: "She really plays the role so well. You can tell she has a blast while she's onstage, and I think that's something very special."
Johnson loves performing the iconic song "Stepsister's Lament" as well as "A Lovely Night," calling Lubov and the actors who play the mother and other sister her "family onstage and off." She also marvels at the show's costumes, which include a hot pink ball gown that weighs 35 pounds.
At every show, the cast watches the little princesses who dress up for the show and the mothers who wear their own gift-shop tiaras. One memorable adult theatergoer wore a blond wig and an elaborate ball gown, with a princess-style skirt that spilled out into the aisle. "Like cosplay," she says, "and it's wonderful to see people really get into it."
For Johnson, the show offers a chance to perform for hometown crowds in the city's new downtown theater.
"As a teenager, all I wanted was to look like everybody else," she says. "As an adult, I know it's the way that I am different than everybody else that is why I have a career."
facebook.com/ellen.weist —
'Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella'
Ball gowns and pumpkins and princes, oh my. Plus classic songs, such as "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible/It's Possible" and "Ten Minutes Ago," and a really sparkling pair of shoes.
When • Tuesday-Thursday, May 30-June 1, 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, June 2-3, 8 p.m.; Sunday, June 4, 1 and 6:30 p.m.
Where • Eccles Theater, 131 Main St., Salt Lake City
Tickets • $30-$105 (plus facility and service fees ranging from $9-$12); 801-355-2787 or artsaltlake.org. Limited availability of scattered single seats and partially obstructed views.