Cinderella as a Poem

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 429, 12 September 1947, Page 8

Cinderella as a Poem

HERE is nothing so commendable as not getting into a rut, so we should be grateful rather than startled if we find ourselves faced with a serving of Cinderella at 9.30 in the evening, which is what happened to listeners to 2YA on a recent Monday. Cinderella has been rewritten as a "poem" by Alice Duer ("White Cliffs") Miller, but the subject scarcely gives scope for her undoubted talent for apie 5 since the happy ending is all too obviously just around the corner. However, the lady does her best by endowing’ Cinderella with a well-intentioned papa who comes to a William Rufus end shortly after deciding ‘that his second marriage was all a mistake. Thereafter tre story meanders daintily along the teaditidnal path, in pantomimically syncopated

couplets. There are occasional infelicities. Cinderella’s ball dress is fastened with diamond studs x Because in those old days they had no zippers, But strangely enough her slippers Were made of plastic glass! On the other hand, Mrs. Miller has a refreshing directness and many felicities of expression. The prince, we are told, was "just the sort of man that young girls dream of meeting, and very seldom can." Ard I liked Cinderella waiting to try on the slipper, and sitting down with "a shy yet comforted air," and Stepmother’s ®stretching — mouth till she thought that she smiled: Moreover, followers of the royal wedding will appreciate the attention Mrs. Miller lavishes on the details of Cinderella’s nuptial accoutrements, so different from the reticence of the story-book version. . ‘