Cinderella's Castle

Cinderella's Castle is the fifteenth original online musical from Team StarKid. It ran at the El Portal Theatre in Los Angeles from July 18-27, 2024. The digital ticket is currently available.

Summary[]

The team that took you to the tiny town of Hatchetfield, invites you on a journey to The Lands That Are for the latest StarKid musical adventure, CINDERELLA’S CASTLE.

Ella Ashmore's noble house lies in ruin. She is a prisoner in her own home. Behind her Stepmother's magical facade is a wicked troll, hellbent on casting the world of man-folk into eternal darkness. Fate, fury, and an offering of blood will awaken an eldritch being from an ageless slumber, granting Ella the power to see her sweet dreams come true.

This grim retelling of the classic fairy tale is filled with humor, puppetry and a fantastic musical score of twelve original songs!

Synopsis[]

Act 1[]

The musical opens with The Narrator and the Bog's Hollow players singing about The Old King's Castle ("Castle On A Hill"). The Narrator then welcomes the audience and introduces them to The Whippoorwills, including Ragweed Rockhammer. The Narrator then goes to begin his story but is interrupted by Ragweed playing his woodblock. The story then begins.

The story opens with Ella Ashmore in a butcher's shop, where she is insulted by a butcher. They are then interrupted by The Stepmother who corrects the Butcher when he refers to her as being Ella's mother. The Stepmother then sends Ella to wait by their cart whilst she discusses her meat order with the Butcher. The Butcher initially refuses to sell the meat to her as it's furry and full of maggots due to the lack of preservatives she requested. The Stepmother then seduces the Butcher into keeping her order a secret.

Whilst waiting for her stepmother, Ella attempts to get help from the townsfolk who all believe her to be crazy or cursed. She approaches her father's friend Sir Preston who is horrified by her appearance and does not believe Ella's story of the trolls that live in her home. The townsfolk then sing about how they believe Ella to be crazy ("Cursed Crazy"). Sir Preston then convinces the townsfolk to 'help' Ella and they throw her in the river to bathe her.

Meanwhile, The Prince and Tadius are returning from the Northern Kingdoms. As they go, The Prince plays a crude song and then complains to Tadius about how the Northern Kingdom Queen rejected him. Tadius suggests to The Prince that perhaps he shouldn't be so crude to the women he's attempting to charm and then reminds The Prince that he does need to marry someone. Tadius is then left in the carriage as The Prince leaves to relieve himself in the river.

Ella exits the river and for a moment is overjoyed to find herself clean but is later horrified when she realizes she'll be reprimanded by her stepmother for it. Ella goes to cover herself in the mud from the riverbank where she spots The Prince using the river as a toilet. The two flirt for a moment and the Prince is extremely attracted to Ella and agrees to take her away but they are interrupted by the Stepmother. The Stepmother tells the Prince that Ella is crazy and he is horrified. The Stepmother then attempts to seduce The Prince herself but is unsuccessful and The Prince and Tadius leave.

Ella returns home with her Stepmother who is angered by her insolence and reveals her true form to Ella in order to scare her into submission. Ella then begins to prepare a meal for the trolls. She decides to make frog paste from the recipe book. She talks to the frog as she attempts to find the strength to kill it and tells him about how she can't give up on her life and simply die as she wants to get revenge on her step-family ("Step On Your Grave"). Ella then lets the frog go and heats toe jam for the trolls.

Following this, Tadius appears announcing the palace's plans for a ball. He is then interrupted by the Prince who makes a crude joke. Tadius fakes laughter at the joke which irritates the Prince causing him to storm off.

Meanwhile, at House Ashmore, The Stepmother, Putrice and Rancilda eat their dinner and discuss the upcoming ball. As they talk, The Stepmother criticizes her daughters, especially Rancilda's penchant for riddles. She then informs the girls that Justine and Lucy Grizzwald will be staying with them for the ball and orders Ella to clean the house in order to remove all signs of troll infestation, including making herself look presentable. Lucy and Justine arrive and Ella is overjoyed to see them. The girls leave the house and spend a happy day together ("Last Forever"). They arrive at The Old Oak where Ella tells the girls the truth about her family. They are horrified and agree to help Ella by taking her home with them to Honeyhold. However, they are interrupted by the Stepmother who shoots Justine and Lucy, killing them. The Stepmother then skins the girls and fashions their skin into two skinsuits for Putrice and Rancilda, much to Putrice's joy and Rancilda's confusion, and orders Ella to bury their remains. Upon receiving their new skinsuits, The Stepmother attempts to tutor her daughters in how to be human and they then leave for the ball ("Facade").

Ella takes the remains of the Grizzwald girls to her mother's clearing and buries them but as she does so, their innocent blood awakens The Fairy Queen of Sweet Dreams. The Fairy Queen offers to help Ella achieve her sweet dream: getting revenge on her step-family. She creates Ella a knight: Sir Hop-A-Lot and his squire: Crumb to protect her, gives her a disguise and clothes to wear to the Prince's ball and Trappings of Starlight to use as a weapon ("Ash to Ash").

Act 2[]

The ball begins with Tadius announcing The Prince and the festivities begin. As they arrive at the ball, The Stepmother tells Putrice and Rancilda the story of how she killed their father and encourages them to seduce The Prince. Both Putrice and Rancilda attempt to seduce The Prince and are almost successful in this but are interrupted by the arrival of Ella. The two dance and the Prince falls for her instantly ("Neon"). This angers The Stepmother and she seduces a Royal Guard Captain into killing Ella for her.

The Prince and Ella leave the main ballroom and talk together with the Prince making very crude remarks. The Prince then leaves to vomit the wine he has drunk in order to sober up and leaves Ella with Tadius. The two make conversation and initially, Ella is irritated by Tadius' previous remarks about the status of her house, however, he then apologizes. The two then exchange witty remarks with one another. Tadius then attempts to call Ella pretty but struggles, leading to Ella teasing him. The two then discuss their general distaste for The Prince and he questions why Ella would consider marrying him. He offers to allow Ella to run away from him and escape, allowing The Prince to marry Putrice or Rancilda instead, but Ella refuses telling Tadius that there are some things worse than The Prince. This leads to Tadius agreeing but misunderstanding Ella's meaning, he questions how they could kill the King. Tadius is then embarrassed at the misunderstanding and leaves leaving Ella to consider what her "sweet dream" really means to her ("Ever After").

After he leaves Ella is attacked by the Royal Guard Captain who is working for her Stepmother. The Captain is stopped by Sir Hop-A-Lot and Ella and Crumb manage to run away. As they run, Ella is stopped by her Stepmother who attempts to kill Ella but is stopped by Crumb. Ella then runs from the ball but as she runs the Stepmother grabs her slipper, pulling it from her foot. Ella calls the Stepmother a troll, causing The Stepmother to realize her identity, and runs away. Tadius and The Prince then find Ella's slipper on the steps and decide to search for the woman to whom the shoe belongs.

As Ella returns home, The Stepmother is waiting for her. She tells Ella that the Prince is searching for the girl who fits the slippers and that she knows her to be the mystery woman from the ball. She then has Putrice and Rancilda hold Ella down as she removes Ella's feet, killing her. She then adds Ella's feet to Putrice's skin suit ("Watch"). At this point, Ragweed stops The Narrator and complains that he killed Cinderella in Cinderella's Castle. Ragweed then leaves, refusing to play his woodblock for the story and joins the audience rather than continue playing in the band. The Narrator continues his story, insisting that Ragweed will be fine.

The Stepmother, Putrice and Rancilda then go to the palace where Putrice successfully tries on the slipper causing everyone to believe her to be the girl from the ball, much to the troll's delight ("Watch (Reprise)"). That evening, The Prince and Putrice get married. The Stepmother, Rancilda and Putrice then reveal their true forms and Putrice kills the Prince by ripping off his head. The Stepmother then reveals to the gathered guests that she plans to kill them all and turn them all into skin suits to allow trolls to take over The Lands That Are. However, they are interrupted by Ella who has returned from the dead. Ella orders Sir Hop-A-Lot to kill Putrice by slicing her open from the inside and he does. Rancilda begs Ella for mercy and is reprimanded by her mother. She then announces that she no longer wants to be part of her mother's schemes and ambitions, and just wants a simple troll life under a bridge, and runs away pursued by Sir Hop-A-Lot and Crumb. Ella then uses the trappings of starlight given to her by The Fairy Queen of Sweet Dreams to turn her Stepmother to stone ("Ash to Ash (Reprise)").

Ella then returns to her mother's clearing where she mourns Justine and Lucy. It is there she is approached by Tadius. He tells her that the Old King has died, implying he killed him and tells Ella that she is now Queen ("Trappings of Starlight"). Later, Ella appoints Sir Hop-A-Lot as Lord of the marsh and swamp and appoints Crumb as her knight. The Narrator then turns to Ragweed, questioning what he thinks of the story now. Ragweed admits that it was good but could have used more woodblock to which the Narrator agrees. The story then ends with The Narrator and the cast signing a reprise of Castle on the Hill ("Finale").

Development[]

The musical was conceived during the writing of Black Friday when Nick and Matt Lang were discussing the live action Disney movies. The musical continued to be written on the side during production of Black Friday and Nerdy Prudes Must Die as a potential movie idea and then was later created to be a musical.

The musical was initially teased by Jon Matteson on March 11, 2024 when he mentioned filming something for StarKid^[1]. In the weeks that followed various teasers were posted by members of Team StarKid. The official teaser announcement was made by StarKid on March 23, 2024. Further teasers were posted on March 25, 27 and 29^[2]. The show was officially announced on March 30 with the Kickstarter launching on April 6^[3]. The campaign ended on May 5, 2024 and made $529,135 with pledges from 7,472 backers.

Pre-sale for the show opened on May 13, 2024 with general sale opening on May 20. Rehearsals started on June 3, 2024. The show opened on July 18, 2024 and closed on July 27. The show's digital ticket was released on August 16, 2024, for fans to rent within a 3 Day period until 9th October 2024. The digital tickets was re-released to rent for a short period of time between 24th-31st October 2024 (however some fans stated it lasted until the 2nd or 3rd November 2024). The Pro-Shot is stated to be available in Early 2025 on YouTube.

Cast[]

(*) Bold names denote the actor's onstage Starkid debut.

Band[]

The band for Cinderella's Castle were known as The Whippoorwills.

Creative Team[]

Songs[]

Gallery

Click here to view the gallery.

References[]