30 Days of NYMF on BroadwayWorld Day 21: Isabelle And The Pretty-Ugly Spell by Joan Ross Sorkin

By: Sep. 22, 2005
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

Job woes: Are you tired of saying "bibbidi-bobbidi-boo?" Are you bored with bearing gifts to the baby Aurora? Are you ready for a fairy tale of your own? If you are a singing fairy godmother and looking for a star vehicle, you have come to the right place. Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell is a charming new musical, starring a lovable but scatterbrained fairy godmother who goofs when she casts a spell and has only three days to make things right. Only fairy godmothers who are tenacious, indefatigable and willing to face the pitfalls and pratfalls of the job need apply. Add perfect comic timing and a high belt and you've got the job description of Isabelle, affectionately known as Izzy, our very own flighty fairy godmother who headlines in Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell at The Lion at Theatre Row in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, running six performances from Fri., Sept. 23 –Sun., Oct. 2.

My collaborator Steve Fisher always wanted to write a family musical and came up with the idea of writing one from the point of view of a fairy godmother, exploring what it would be like to have the day-to-day job of finding true love for princesses, princes, even bakers' sons. Would the fairy godmother always be perfect or could she make mistakes and have to fix them? What if she didn't always have her wand to make magic? All these ideas coalesced to form the framework of Isabelle. When Steve and I sat down to write the book for the show, we knew it had to be funny and fresh, but also contain some touchstones from a well-known fairy tale, so that kids would instantly understand the story and go willingly on the journey with us. Cinderella became our template, incorporating a wicked stepmother, a princess and a ball, but turning the concept of Cinderella on its head. (Clue: Our Cinderella--a supporting character--is not a mistreated girl who becomes a princess.) Thus, our title: Isabelle and The Pretty-Ugly Spell, an upside-down Cinderella fairy tale with Izzy in the title role. Since its inception five wonderfully talented women have played the role of Izzy:  Rachel Hallowell  (Summer Stage 2002), Alison Fraser (ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop), Emily Loesser (The York Theatre Company-dev. reading series),  Sarah Davida (Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre), and now the indomitable and hysterically funny Ruth Gottschall (see photo on right). Oops, we forgot! For fairies with resumes, sorry, the job is presently filled!

—Joan Ross Sorkin (co-book writer)

ISABELLE AND THE PRETTY-UGLY SPELL
an upside-down Cinderella fairy tale

Music and Lyrics by Steven Fisher
Book by Joan Ross Sorkin and Steven Fisher
Vote Sponsor


Videos