Mary Poppins. Another of those " once you've seen the movie, how can you top it." shows. .

Okay, this has been great feedback! Thank you all so much! The link to the review was very helpful and I listened to the music on amazon. I had run across those clips before and, falsely thinking I had to pay for them, I skipped the preview, so I appreciated the explanation and revisit to hear them.

My children will not care a bit about the deviation from the original story line in Cinderella, although I appreciate the heads-up. They just enjoy a good play, plain and simple. This is the first trip to NYC only for my 5 year old, who has been to other cities and seen other shows, so she will be fine. They do enjoy a "big" show best, and as long as this one has a glass slipper, a prince and princess and some upbeat music of any sort, they will be quite happy. The coach will be a huge bonus as will the fairy godmother, and they will go bonkers over the flying Cinderella. If there is still any political sideline about social injustice, etc it will entertain my 10 year old, as well as my husband. :)

I think they would really enjoy Annie just fine, but they can watch the movie and enjoy that just as well I think at this point. I wish we had time to see both, but this is really a zip-trip this time and we will have to choose only one. I know we will be back soon enough to see Annie anyway. I guess my dilemma was really just having to choose "just one." Isn't that always the hardest part about anything in NYC? So many great shows to see, places to eat, stores to shop, sites to see...you just can't fit it all into one visit for sure.

Thank you so much for helping me decide!

Patrick, we saw both shows. I can't believe the difference between the two. Having seen the movie umpteen times, my girls know every line of Annie and therefore enjoyed it thoroughly. My youngest got an Annie doll and carried her all over NYC for the rest of our trip.

However, I was underwhelmed and was VERY glad we decided to see both shows so they could see a real WOW factor with costuming and (what I think of as) big theatrical musical and stage set up performance in Cinderella....which they definitely got in the Cinderella show. How DID she change dresses before our very eyes, anyway?! And that horse and carriage was amazing. The girls did not care a bit about the diversion in the storyline, they just wanted the prince to find the princess!

Everything you said was spot on, as usual. Music and acting was superior in Cinderella. Annie needed more children and just more overall "oomph." I was so glad we saw both!

Has anyone seen the Rockettes in NYC this year? Interested what you all thought of that. Definitely added some "modernized" songs. Kids liked it. I kind of like the more traditional songs myself.

Sanibella,

Just saw Cinderella last week. A friend is one of the featured players and so he showed us around backstage afterward. He pointed out that, aside from the godmother flying, all the special effects are simply skillful manipulations of carefully-made props and costumes--no electronics, no digital technology.

In particular he showed us the velcro on a tree where Cinderella's dress is transformed. Attached to the tree is the skirt of her ball gown, with fabric like bark on one side facing out and a poofy white skirt on the underside. Dressed in rags, she spins and throws herself against a tree as if the magic is spinning her. In the throwing and spinning, she literally rolls across the skirt, pulling it from the tree and wrapping it around herself. At the same time, she repositions part of her bodice to cover the rags, and become a white gown on top as well. Soon she rides away in the coach and changes into a much nicer gown for the ball scenes. My friend--who has been in plenty of Broadway shows--remarked that Laura Osnes does this quick change particularly well.

He also shows us a backstage chalkboard covered with tallies in three categories. At one point the stepsister throws her shoe across the stage and the cast is keeping a tally of whether the shoe is caught, dropped, or missed.

That is so interesting! Love the tally board.

Our seats were close to the front and I spied the Velcro so I knew there was a trick there near the trees but I missed how it had happened. What you explained makes sense...but she is amazingly fast and accurate! And I did notice her quick change to the real ball gown, and noted how frenzied it must have been backstage the first time she did that!

What about the gold dress? I know she rolled it out of the bottom pink hoop. But the top...??? Call me mystified.

My friend suggested I look up Osnes' performance for the Tony Awards on YouTube. A special gown was created for that performance since it would be at a different theater and there would be no tree scenery to use for the illusion. If you watch it, you will see the white gown seem to appear from nowhere, though it does seem to be similar to the way the gold gown appeared, dropping from waist height somehow.

Definitely YouTubing. ;)

Me too