From the moment the Fairy Godfather appeared onstage in his fake gold chains and velour tracksuit, it was clear that Ross Petty's Cinderella was not going to be a typical fairy tale.
Pushed by a young man with slicked-back hair, pencil-thin pants and a bad Italian accent, the Godfather began the show by granting a newly-graduated fairy godmother her first assignment -- to watch over Cinderella, a responsible, motivated girl who runs a health food caf� with her bumbling father.
And so begins the family-oriented musical running until Jan. 4 at Toronto's Elgin Theatre.
This year's installment of the annual Ross Petty Christmas show is a hilarious take on the rags-to-riches classic, using physical gags, modern songs and subtle grown-up jokes to keep viewers of all ages focused on the stage.
The show follows Cinderella -- played by Degrassi: The Next Generation actress Paula Brancati -- as she works to stop her failed thespian of a father from losing the bakery's prime real estate to his evil new wife.
The evil stepmother, Bertha Von Botox, and her two daughters, Carnivia and Plumbum, are all notably masculine - played by extremely agile male actors dressed in the most ridiculous of princess dresses.
After deciding that she can do even better than Cinderella's father, Botox schemes to get her daughters into the prince's royal ball, where they can marry into royalty and take her with them to the top.
"We can go to the price's ball?" exclaims an incredulous Carnivia, before settling down to get her back waxed for the big event. "The prince's balls are famous!"
At the ball, the evil daughters take their eyes off the prize once the hors d'oeuvres begin to appear.
"Look at all the beautiful people nibbling canap�s and sipping on champagne," says one of the sisters. "It's like a gala for artists!"
The prince himself, played by Degrassi's dreamy Jake Epstein, is an Elvis-loving loner who dreams of finding a girl who likes him for something other than his money.
To find out if he succeeds check out Cinderella: The Sillylicious Family Musical.
