fairy tale story for the whole family
“Don´t worry, it’s a fairy tale, it will have a happy end!” It’s a sentence that’s familiar to everyone. We may remember it from our childhood when our parents and grandparents wanted to reassure us because we were afraid of how the story which we are reading or watching was going to end. Or, perhaps we tell our children it ourselves now we are adults. There is something calming in it, but it’s sometimes also a little annoying. Don’t we lose a sense of tension and mystery when we know that “it” will all turn out well in the end? Wouldn´t it be interesting and tempting to find out what would happen if it simply didn´t turn out well after all? The authors of the new original musical Snow White and Me may have had that very same idea. The musical doesn´t tell the classic story of Snow White as we know it. Its story connects the real world of people with the world of fairy tales, where Snow White´s evil stepmother Endora has decided to put a stop to any “living happily ever after.” She has a logical reason for it. The only way to stay the most beautiful woman in the whole world is to make sure that the poisoned Snow White is never kissed by any prince ever, ever, ever. She therefore decides to change all those happy ends and rule the whole fairy tale empire as a despot. Fortunately, Florián comes to the rescue. Snow White´s clumsy childhood friend has always been an insignificant fairy tale character, but now he decides to help her despite all the dangers and adventures it may bring, and sets out to find a saviour in the world of people.
The new fairy tale musical contains elements of everything that can be described, in the good sense of the word, as theatre for the whole family. Thanks to the Brothers Grimm, whose fairy tales inspired the authors, we meet popular heroes, characters and creatures who move the thrilling story along with the requisite amount of humour and hyperbole. After all, the imaginary saviour of the fairy tale empire turns out to be two adolescent girls in the end. The co-author of the script is Philip LaZebnik, who created, among other things, the screenplays for the animated films Pocahontas, Mulan and The Prince of Egypt. The author of the captivating music is the talented young composer Pippa Cleary, whose mentor is none other than the composer of the phenomenal Les Misérables, Claude-Michel Schönberg. We will present the world premiere of this musical under the direction of Stanislav Slovák and translated by Zuzana Čtveráčková.
