Like Shrek, the 3 Little Bears Productions‘ production Cinderella: It ain’t over till the shoe fits now playing at FringeKids! has something for both kids and adults. Their retelling of the classic fairytale is a cute way to spend an hour at the theatre with your children.

After taking a minute to set up the narrator characters, we move more or less through the Cinderella story as we know and love it. I found that the set up was a bit tedious, but it gave the players room to make jokes about Justin Bieber and Donald Trump that kept the parents laughing.

There were enough lowbrow jokes that played around with mishearing words and loud trumpeting to keep kids entertained too. The kids at the show participated in all of the audience participation moments (which means they were paying attention at least) and the projections that represented the fairy godmother’s magic got a few “Wows” from some of the younger audience members.

Both kids and parents delighted in the show’s melodious tunes, but I felt like they were too few and far between. Isabel Hornstein’s song as the fairy godmother where she channeled Ethel Merman and Jackie Hoffman in particular found fans in everyone in the audience.

The show didn’t always fire on all cylinders, though. I thought the best parts of the show could have been condensed into a half-hour long show and that that might have played better. Still, if you want to get your kids out to the theatre it’ll keep their attention for an hour and maybe make them laugh a few times.

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