‘Cinderella’ Lands At The Met

The Spokane Children’s Theatre presents a special version of “Cinderella” beginning Wednesday at The Met.

This musical-comedy version of the story is special in several ways. First, it features a number of Spokane’s best-known theater names.

Troy Nickerson is the director, Jean Hardie plays the Fairy Godmother and Melody Deatherage plays the Wicked Stepmother. This is one of SCT’s splashiest shows of the year, held at the 760-seat Met, instead of at the smaller Spokane Civic Theatre.

This version, created by the Prince Street Players of New York in the early ‘60s, is special for another reason, too.

One of the originators of the show will be in the audience at The Met. Susannah Kirkham Steffy, who now lives in Spokane, was one of the original Prince Street Players from 1963 through 1966. She created the role of the Wicked Stepmother in its inaugural performance.

The Prince Street Players were “one of the first truly professional children’s theaters in the country,” said Steffy, who is long retired from the stage.

Steffy had been a star performer during her teen years at both the Spokane Civic Theatre and the Spokane Children’s Theatre. At age 20, she won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School in Manhattan, one of the most prestigious theater schools in the country.

After attending school there, she and five other actors, writers, composers and lyricists decided to get together in a Manhattan loft and create a new kind of children’s theater. They wrote funny and tuneful versions of classic stories, and rehearsed them in their loft on Prince Street near the Bowery in Manhattan.

Then they took them on the road, playing them in theaters up and down the East Coast. The group soon became legendary and they even landed a spot on CBS, producing their plays for a series of specials.

“We had a lot of fun with that company,” said Steffy. “It was definitely children’s theater, but it had a mature, adult edge to it. There were a lot of ad libs that we would come up with.”

She left the group in 1966, moved back to Seattle and eventually to Spokane. She was amazed when she saw that the Spokane Children’s Theatre was doing the Prince Street Players version of “Cinderella.”

“I thought, could that be the same one from 35 years ago?” she said.

She called the SCT, and found out that it was. They invited her to a rehearsal to share her knowledge of the show and of the part.

“I played the Wicked Stepmother as a kind of Lucille Ball type,” said Steffy.

She described the show as “very sweet and funny.”

Nickerson has added a few extra touches for this version. The entire ball scene will be danced en pointe by students from the Ballet Arts Academy, choreographed by Peggy Goodner.

Nik Adams has designed a series of colorful sets. Tami Knoell plays Cinderella and Mike Wenrick plays Prince Charming. David Gigler plays King Darling and Mary Starkey and Phedre Quimby play the stepsisters.

The show opens Wednesday and continues Feb. 24, 25, March 2 and 3, all at 7 p.m. The Met is at 901 W. Sprague. Tickets are $6 on the main floor and lower balcony, and $5 on the upper balcony. All seats are reserved and can be obtained only by calling 328-4886 or in person at the SCT office, 315 W. Mission, No. 23.